Formula 1 News: Kimi Raikkonen Wants More Pace from Ferrari

Kimi Raikkonen is not yet satisfied with the pace of his Ferrari, despite running second-fastest in the first two practice sessions ahead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The Finn lapped within four tenths of a second of Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in Practice Two on Friday, outpacing the reigning world champion’s team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Practice Two Timesheet

	Driver	Team	Time
1	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:39.790
2	Kimi Raikkonen	Ferrari	1:40.163
3	Nico Rosberg	Mercedes	1:40.218

Nonetheless, 2007 world champion Raikkonen remains unsatisfied with the performance of his SF15-T and has urged his mechanics to continue modifying it ahead of qualifying and Sunday’s race.

“The car is still not perfect,” said Raikkonen, per ESPN's Laurence Edmonson.  “We have more to do and I think we have to still improve because we are struggling a bit.

“We have to improve for tomorrow [Saturday] on the set-up to make it a bit easier, and we will try to do the best we can.”

Raikkonen’s team-mate Sebastian Vettel registered only the seventh-fastest lap in P2, but, timed at 1:40.652, it was within one second of Hamilton’s pace.

Vettel’s best effort in qualifying in Australia was over 1.4 seconds slower than the pole position time set by Hamilton, suggesting Ferrari are closing the gap on Mercedes.

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Lewis Hamilton 'surprised' by Ferrari pace but expects to improve http://t.co/l5QdMr4kSb #SkyF1 pic.twitter.com/Zd0t5mn0bI

— Sky Sports F1 (@SkySportsF1) March 27, 2015"

However, it remains unconfirmed what fuel loads Ferrari and Mercedes were running with during practice.

Due to the heat in Sepang—where temperatures are expected to exceed 30 degrees on race day, per weather.com —tyre preservation is high on the agenda for every team this weekend.

Track temperatures reached double that in Friday’s practice runs, according to Rosberg, who has hinted hard tyre compounds will be utilised most during the race, with tyre suppliers Pirelli predicting three-stop strategies to dominate proceedings.

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