Raikkonen surprised by pace on 'messy' Friday

The Finn ended second practice in fourth place, 0.8 seconds behind pacesetter Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes and two tenths down on Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel.

"We didn't have a good feeling all day and I'm sure we can regroup tomorrow," Raikkonen told reporters after FP2.

"I'm surprised how decent the lap times were when the feeling was far from what I want.

"It was quite a messy day and not very smooth at all. It was a bit tricky.

"We have to sit down and look things through. The feeling wasn't good, but the lap time wasn't disastrous."

Raikkonen complained on the radio of unspecified problems with his car in second practice at Sepang, with Ferrari confirming once he had returned to the garage that it was the front of the car that was being investigated.

Vettel was more positive about his day than Raikkonen, but he was careful to avoid predicting Ferrari can repeat its surprise victory in Malaysia from 2015.

"We had a decent day, testing quite a few things," said the German.

"Our pace didn't look too bad, at least from what I was told inside the car.

"If the chance is there we have to go for it, but we are realistic and we have seen Mercedes is very strong today on both short and long runs.

"We are pretty happy with our short run, the long run we can improve, getting the car more together.

"It's right to dream, but at the same time you need to be awake and at the moment we are not strong enough to come here and say we will win.

"But if the chance comes up, similar to last year, then we need to be ready and be there."