Raikkonen left lamenting engine issues

The Finn, winner in Melbourne, never looked in contention for victory at Sepang, having to settle for third place behind race winner Fernando Alonso and McLaren teammate Lewis Hamilton.

Raikkonen had suffered engine problems at the end of the race in Melbourne, and the team opted to not replace the unit to avoid a penalty.

The decision, however, meant Raikkonen's engine was not working at his maximum capacity during the Sepang race.

"We needed to compromise something," said Raikkonen of the engine. "It was not an ideal start to the weekend, we wanted to be on pole position but we couldn't. It is still early in the season and we are in a good position. It is going to be close fighting in the next races but that is F1.

"I think we knew the engine wasn't 100 percent, so we had to be on safe side, and there were things that were not perfect so we could not risk to do anything stupid.

"Hopefully next race we can get the car working 100 percent again like in the first race."

The Ferrari driver was happy to score good points, however, despite losing his championship lead to Alonso.

"I am happy to get some points, but disappointed how we ended up in the race," said the Finn. "The whole weekend has been quite difficult we had to compromise too many things and lost too much speed, it was one of the weekend where we had to do what was needed to do to get the most points.

"It (the car) wasn't difficult to drive, but it was just not fast enough. We know the reasons why we were not quick this race, but unfortunately we were in the position where we could not do anything. Hopefully the next race we can turn the tables and fight for the win again."

Teammate Felipe Massa finished a disappointing fifth after having started from pole position.