Raikkonen Confident Ahead of Second Qualifying

Finn Kimi Raikkonen is confident of challenging for the top positions in tomorrow's decisive qualifying session for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The McLaren driver lost out to both Ferrari drivers and Williams' Juan Pablo Montoya in Friday's session, finishing in fourth place 1.3 seconds off the pace set by World Champion Michael Schumacher in the F2002.

Raikkonen, who fought for victory in Australia two weeks ago, made a mistake on his flying lap, something he hopes to avoid on Saturday.

"Today was not too bad. I lost a bit of track time this morning after I went wide during practice so the set up of the car is still not perfect," said Raikkonen. "During my qualifying lap I made a small mistake in the last corner and lost some time.

"However I'm not too concerned as tomorrow is when it really counts and hopefully then I can put together a perfect lap."

McLaren's Championship leader David Coulthard, winner against the odds in Melbourne, was first on the track but the Scot managed only the fifth best time as he had to cope with a dirty track.

"My qualifying lap today was definitely better than the one in Melbourne but still a bit conservative as I didn't want to make a mistake," admitted Coulthard. "As I'm leading the Championship I was the first one out of the pits today and its obviously a disadvantage as the track is dirty at the beginning and tends to get cleaned up throughout the session.

"We still have some work to do as my lap time was slower than this morning's when I had more fuel."