Kimi Raikkonen wanted to keep expectations in check despite Ferrari's performance in the second practice session.

Raikkonen, the race winner at Sepang last year, produced the best time in the afternoon with a lap of one minute 35.707 seconds in overcast conditions.

He was 0.125secs ahead of team-mate Felipe Massa as Ferrari looked to bounce back from last weekend's disappointing start to the season in Australia.

Sebastian Vettel's Red Bull was third with a time of 1:35.954 while Nico Rosberg, who topped all three practices in Australia and the opening session today, had his run ended as he finished fourth for Williams.

In a competitive session that saw the leading times of the top 15 cars separated by less a second, Mark Webber was fifth in the second Red Bull while the Brawn pair of Rubens Barrichello and Jenson Button were sixth and seventh respectively.

Kazuki Nakajima was eighth in the second Williams with Heikki Kovalainen's McLaren and Nelson Piquet's Renault rounding off the top 10.

Ferrari endured their worst start to a Formula One season in 17 years in Australia as Raikkonen crashed into a wall with three laps remaining and Massa retired 13 laps from the end with a broken front wing.

Having been well off the pace in Melbourne, there were signs of promise from the Ferrari during the first practice with Massa finishing fifth, three-tenths of a second behind Rosberg, with Raikkonen a further spot behind.

The Finn had to endure a hot and premature finish to his session, though, as he jumped out of his car in the pits with steam billowing out of the cockpit after its Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS) batteries appeared to have overheated.

The former world champion shrugged that off, though, with a strong run in the afternoon that put him in a familiar position at the top of the timesheets, although he felt it was too early to talk up his car's chances for this weekend's race.

"This morning we had a problem with the KERS, which cost us a bit of time, but we managed to make up for most of it in the afternoon," said Raikkonen.

"We had felt the situation here could be different to Melbourne but it is still too early to say where we are up against the opposition.

"What we can be sure of is that, when the car runs trouble-free, we are competitive. We hope we can do a good job in tomorrow's qualifying."

After the disappointment of Australia, Massa was pleased with the performance of his car today.

"At the start of the long runs, I had a bit of understeer in the high-speed corners and oversteer in the slow ones but, towards the end, the handling of the car improved continuously and I could set some great times," said the Brazilian.

"Clearly looking at the timesheet today, there's a slight feeling of relief, even if it has to be treated with caution.

"We are very motivated and the whole team will be trying its best."

Vettel will be penalised 10 spots on the grid after causing an accident with Robert Kubica's BMW in Australia but the German could at least be happy with the performance of his Red Bull today.

"Today went well with smooth running," he explained.

"We ran though our programme, did a lot of laps and got a lot of information about our tyres.

"There were no major problems with either car, so it was a good day."

Lewis Hamilton could only manage 11th place, nearly seven-tenths of a second behind Raikkonen, with Toyota's Jarno Trulli, the driver with whom he has been embroiled in so much controversy following the world champion's disqualification from last week's Australian Grand Prix, only one-thousandth of a second behind.

Giancarlo Fisichella sustained damage to the front wing and front left wheel of his Force India after running wide on turn 11, going over the kerb and through the gravel before crashing into the tyre wall.

Toyota's Timo Glock and Toro Rosso's Sebastien Bourdais also had eventful second sessions with unscheduled trips through the gravel traps at turns six and 13 respectively.