Raikkonen: We were Not Quick Enough

Finn Kimi Raikkonen admitted his McLaren team have not been quick enough to challenge for pole position in today's qualifying for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The 22-year old McLaren driver, who has outpaced teammate David Coulthard in all five timed sessions at the Sepang circuit so far, will start tomorrow's race in a disappointing fifth position after qualifying more than one second behind Michael Schumacher, who set the fastest time of the day.

"Obviously I would have liked to qualify nearer the front but as we saw in Australia two weeks ago anything can happen during the race," said Raikkonen. "The balance of the car wasn't ideal. We did our best, but were not quick enough.

"The race tomorrow will be physically very hard because of the high temperatures here in Malaysia, but I have been training hard so I will be well prepared."

Coulthard was far from happy after a difficult session which saw him finishing right behind his less experienced teammate in sixth spot. The Scot, whose car caught fire on Friday after an exhaust problem, complained about the handling of his Michelin-shod McLaren.

"I'm not at all happy with today's performance and it has been difficult from the start of the weekend," said the Scot. "I suffered from a lot of oversteer during qualifying and was therefore unable to attack the corners in the way I would have liked.

"We now have to work hard to improve our set-up for tomorrow when we have a long and tough race where anything can happen."