SEPANG, Malaysia (AP) McLaren's duo led the way in practice Friday at the Malaysian Grand Prix, but Michael Schumacher still seems to be the man to beat - even to those who finished in front of him.

Kimi Raikkonen and David Coulthard posted the fastest times ahead of Schumacher, the four-time world Formula One champion and winner of the last two races here.

Yet the McLaren drivers still considered Schumacher and the consistent Ferrari team their major obstacles heading into Saturday's qualifying for grid position.

"I think that Ferrari are still very strong, and that we shouldn't be misled," Coulthard said. "We need to try and take as much as we can off them."

The opening practice session started in hot and hazy conditions, with nearby peat fires burning between the track and the capital of Kuala Lumpur. Temperatures gradually increased to above 86 degrees during the day.

Schumacher, who has helped Ferrari take five of the top six spots in the first three editions of the Malaysian Grand Prix, was fastest in the morning practice but had to settle for the third-fastest time when he clocked 1:38.490 in the second session.

That didn't bother him.

"I am pretty optimistic for the rest of the weekend," Schumacher said. "I am not worried about the gap to the quickest runners today. We expected the others to be fast here, but we have to remember that Friday's times do not always give a clear indication of the real situation."

Ross Brawn, Ferrari's technical director, also was optimistic about the team winning its second race of the season after Schumacher's triumph in the Australian Grand Prix.

"I think we can do reasonably well this weekend," Brawn said.

Ferrari was the runaway winner of the constructors' title last season, while Schumacher's 123 points for the season were nearly double the 58 acquired by Coulthard, his closest challenger.

Raikkonen, replacing two-time champion Mika Hakkinen in the McLaren-Mercedes team, covered the 3.45-mile Sepang International Circuit in 1 minute, 37.399 seconds, averaging 127.33 mph.

But Raikkonen played down the achievement - the first time in his two-year Formula One career that he has topped any standing - and agreed with Coulthard that Saturday's qualifying was more important.

"I just hope that we can also compete like that tomorrow," the Finn said. "It's too early on Friday, even if on every Friday we're the quickest one."

But being ahead of the Ferraris "is giving me a little confidence," Raikkonen said

Two more practice sessions will be held Saturday before the official qualifying. Sunday's race is 55 laps with a lap warm-up.

Coulthard was next fastest in 1:38.038 after the two one-hour practice sessions, but the Scot had a frustrating start.

About 20 minutes into the first free practice, his car caught fire, causing Coulthard to scamper out of his seat. After it cooled down, he helped McLaren mechanics push the car back to the pits so they could work on putting in a new engine before the next session.

"I haven't had much practice of pushing cars, but maybe I should do it a bit more often if this is going to be the formal procedure," Coulthard joked.

Coulthard expects Ferrari to be the "pacesetters" in Malaysia and speculated the team was more concerned with smoothing out details in Friday's practice than clocking the fastest time.

Ralf Schumacher was fourth Friday with a time of 1:38.650, followed by Mika Salo for the new team, Toyota, and Juan Pablo Montoya of Williams-BMW. Salo did 1:39.066 and Montoya 1:39.158.

Ferrari's second driver, Rubens Barrichello, was timed in 1:39.279 at seventh. Barrichello had the pole position in Melbourne on March 3, but was knocked out in a spectacular first-corner pileup.

The Renaults of Jenson Button and Jarno Trulli were next, both timed exactly at 1:39.714, followed by Nick Heidfeld in a Sauber-Petronas, 1:39.889.

Raikkonen, who made a promising debut last year for Sauber, came in third with McLaren at the Australian Grand Prix.

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