Max Verstappen believes third on the grid was the "perfect" result for Red Bull in qualifying at the Malaysian Grand Prix, as their weakness over a single lap continues.

The Dutchman and teammate Daniel Ricciardo filled the second row for Sunday's race following Sebastian Vettel's early exit due to engine problems and Valtteri Bottas' ongoing struggles with his Mercedes.

On his 20th birthday, Verstappen was pleased with the performance, revealing it had been a tricky day finding the right setup to optimise performance.

“I am actually very happy that I’m here in third because this morning, this afternoon, the last session, I was struggling a lot with the balance of the car," he said. “Actually the whole weekend has been a bit up and down in terms of happiness with the car but we managed to do a good qualifying again. Really happy with that, of course.

“The car, actually, except maybe the final run in Q3, before that was really well balanced. I think we could have been a bit closer, definitely, we could not have beaten them today but for us to be third on this track is perfect.”

Red Bull are still being considered strong contenders for the victory as they are typically among the best cars at managing tyre performance and the extra engine modes available to their rivals in qualifying are not so beneficial over 56 laps.

“In the long runs it was all looking good,” Verstappen commented. “If it is good enough, I don’t know we’ll see tomorrow but from my side, I want to have a good Sunday finally because every time on Saturday it is going well but Sunday I haven’t scored a lot of points.

"If it rains then I think we always have a good opportunity," he added.

Ricciardo too is hopeful for the race and actually believes having Hamilton on pole could be a blessing for Red Bull, as he thinks Raikkonen would probably have the pace alone in the dry.

"He can afford to lose," the Australian said of the Mercedes driver. "He can afford to come third, fourth. If he finishes in front of Seb, it's a win.

"I don't know where they [Mercedes] are on engines as well, I don't think they're going to run to the top [of the engine] for the whole race. I think they will have to be conservative for their sake, especially if they're in a podium position and Seb's still seventh or whatever.

"So it could bring the whole race towards us," he hoped.