Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel used KERS to power to pole at Sepang on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The team did not use the energy-recovery technology to dominate in Melbourne two weeks ago, but championship leader Vettel said he needed it to stave off a resurgent McLaren in Malaysia by just one tenth.<\/p>\n
“We came here and solved most of the (reliability) problems,” the German said.\u00a0 “I think if we did not have it (KERS) today, we would not be here (on pole).”<\/p>\n
So significant has been McLaren’s progress in recent weeks that Hamilton, happy to be second best in Australia, was visibly disappointed with his P2 on the Sepang grid.<\/p>\n
“These guys (Red Bull) still have a slight edge but it seems we’ve closed the gap a bit,” said the Briton.<\/p>\n
Also visibly disappointed was Vettel’s teammate Mark Webber, but he said Saturday was a “better performance from me” after a poor showing two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
“Mark (P3) had a little KERS alarm that we’re looking at,” Red Bull boss Christian Horner told the BBC, “but I don’t think it was anything significant.”<\/p>\n
Vettel, meanwhile, said he thinks there will be lots of pitstops in Sunday’s race given the high degradation of the Pirelli tyres.<\/p>\n
“I hope the spectators don’t lose count,” he smiled.<\/p>\n
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