• Malaysian Grand Prix - Qualifying

KERS was crucial for pole - Vettel

ESPNF1 Staff
April 9, 2011 « Button looking to take on Red Bulls on Sunday | »
Sebastian Vettel took pole in Malaysia © Getty Images
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Sebastian Vettel has praised his team for getting KERS up and running on his car in Malaysia so that he could take pole position at this weekend's grand prix.

Red Bull did not use KERS at the opening round in Australia but had a big enough performance advantage for it not to make a difference to Vettel's result. However, Vettel does not believe he would have been able to beat Hamilton to the top spot on the Malaysian grid without the power boost system.

"In the end it was very close with the McLarens so very big compliments to the guys in my team, especially the guys with the KERS system. We got lots of criticism I think in the last race for not having run it all the time which we were not proud of. But we came here and we solved most of our problems, and I think if we did not have it today we would not be here so it's a great achievement so compliments to those guys."

Vettel said his team had done well to maintain a gap over McLaren.

"The gap is quite a lot smaller than it was in Australia; it just shows how quickly things can change, the next race you never know. Now we focus on tomorrow, it's a good job today I think we can be happy, I'm happy also for the boys - it's quite a difficult race, it's very hot in the garage and the air is pretty humid and they are sweating a lot so tonight they will get some sleep for the first time, so yeah happy for them as well."

Looking ahead to Sunday's race, Vettel said there would definitely be more pit stops than the first round in Australia, where he made two, but appeared confident it would not compromise his race too much.

"We came here and we saw that the tyres don't last nearly as long as they did in Australia," he said. "It's different here: different track, different conditions, it's much hotter so it's tougher for them. I think we had an idea yesterday, we were pretty happy with it, so we will see what we can do. I expect more stops than in Australia, definitely, so we will see how many. I just hope the spectators don't lose count!"

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