HOCKENHEIM, Germany (AFP) - Defending world champion Kimi Raikkonen remained cool over rival Lewis Hamilton's hot performance during free practice here on Friday.

The 28-year-old Ferrari driver said that the performances signified little after trailing more than seven-tenths of a second behind the Englishman, who topped both practice sessions ahead of Sunday's German Grand Prix.

"Friday's results always need to be looked at with a degree of caution as you never know for certain what the other teams are doing and today is no exception," the Finn said.

"We tried to improve the set-up of the car compared to the point we had reached at the end of the test and we found, especially towards the end of the day, a few settings that could be interesting."

He added: "I am reasonably pleased with how things went and I think that there is still room for improvement."

Asked about Hamilton's speed, he said: "The times of our main rivals? There are too many question marks to be certain. What I can say is that we will be competitive, especially as right up until the final minutes, the times were all very similar."

Raikkonen finished third behind Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa, who is confident Ferrari can match McLaren's pace during the weekend despite Hamilton's dominance.

"It was a good day," Massa said. "We were competitive, as were our main rivals. It won't be a stroll in the park, but we can take them on.

"There was not much difference, today at least, in pure performance terms between the hard and soft tyres but I think the latter will be a little bit quicker still and will definitely be the right choice for qualifying.

"Now we have to study our data to be in the best possible shape for both qualifying and the race."