Ferrari expected to qualify third, admits Vettel

Vettel said that the goal for qualifying at Sepang had been to get in between Mercedes and Red Bull, but that his car lacked the final tenth of raw pace to do so.

The German will start from fifth position, ahead of teammate Kimi Raikkonen. 

"Obviously we expected [to qualify] one row higher up, P3, right behind Mercedes," said Vettel.

"Nevertheless, for tomorrow I think we should have good speed in the race, strategy will be important. Generally we should be quicker, but we weren't today – I hope we can be tomorrow.

"They were just a bit quicker, we expected it to be tight but we felt we had the upper hand. In the end there wasn't much missing but just enough, just over a tenth.

"As a driver you feel it was always somewhere there, so maybe I need to go and have a look later on, and see if I can pick it up."

On the subject of race strategy, Vettel feels Ferrari can take the fight to Red Bull as they battle for second in the constructors' championship.

"There's a bit of room [for manoeuvre], the fact that everyone has to use the hard at some point makes it interesting," he said.

"Then it's Malaysia, there could always be some rain. It's usually quite hot, which we don't mind."