Vettel looking back to his best with Ferrari

By John O'Brien

SEPANG, Malaysia (Reuters) - Sebastian Vettel showed how much he is enjoying life at Ferrari by whooping with delight at securing second on the grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix on Saturday and punching the air at the post-qualifying news conference.

The four-time world champion cut a forlorn figure in his last season at Red Bull, struggling with an underperforming car and beaten regularly by new team mate Daniel Ricciardo before jumping ship to Ferrari in search of his old spark.

The German's debut race was an encouraging third place behind the dominant Mercedes duo in Melbourne and after splitting world champion Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg in Malaysian qualifying, he can again dream of wins.

"The result puts us in a good position for tomorrow. I think the target for Sunday is to extract the best race we can and then we go from there," Vettel told reporters after missing out on pole by just 0.074 seconds at a rainy Sepang.

"The nature of the track suits our car well and I expect nothing else than to be very strong tomorrow, but you never know about the conditions," he added.

"There is rain in the air that can hit you at the right time but also make it go all wrong, you just never know."

Despite his show of exuberance, Vettel was quick to play down the car's pace but hopeful of giving Mercedes plenty to think about.

"Let's keep our feet on the ground as in the end, we have to look after ourselves," he said. "

"Mercedes is very strong and has an advantage, but it would be nice to give them a hard time tomorrow, it has been a bit too chilled for them in the last months."

Before Saturday, Ferrari -- the sport's most successful team -- had not qualified on the front row since Brazilian Felipe Massa in Malaysia in 2013.

Their joy on Saturday was tempered by Kimi Raikkonen's disappointment after he became stuck behind Marcus Ericsson's Sauber in a mad dash to beat a downpour and missed out on a top 10 grid position.

"It was simply a bad time to go out, we should have been out earlier. I did try to pass Ericsson but he was there trying to do his job; it's not an unlucky situation but it was a mistake," Raikkonen said.

"Tomorrow, we'll try to climb some positions, for sure we have the speed but we are quite far from the front and when you start in this position is not going to be an easy race."

(Editing by Alan Baldwin)