SEPANG, Malaysia, April 5, 2009 (AFP) - Toyota's Timo Glock was over the moon Sunday after only his second podium finish, describing his third place in Malaysia one of his best ever races.

The 27-year-old German, racing in his 24th Grand Prix, stormed through the field after making the right tyre decisions as the conditions worsened in the rain-shortened race.

Glock decided to pit for intermediates rather than full wet tyres when the rain began to fall and he started clocking a full 10 seconds quicker than his rivals.

"It was a tricky race, I have to say, but at the end one of the best races I could ever do," said Glock, whose only other podium finish was at Hungary last year.

"I struggled a bit at the start, I don't know why we lost so many places. Fernando (Alonso) and Kimi (Raikkonen) were in front of me in the first corner and I didn't know where they'd come from.

"I think I was only eighth after the first lap."

He said the tyre decisions were crucial, but admitted it was not an easy choice with rain threatening, then holding off, then pouring.

"After five or six laps I already saw the clouds were coming and I kept asking 'when is the rain coming'. My team said it should come in the next couple of minutes," he said.

"Then I thought when it takes so long and we were so close to the first pitstop, I thought I'd take the risk and go to inters because I saw a Ferrari on heavy wets very early and knew they would be destroyed.

"So I said 'come on, go for inters and take the risk', and in the end it paid off."