Vettel: RBR needs more pace at Sepang

Sebastian Vettel believes Red Bull might not have the same speed advantage over its rivals in Malaysia that it showed in Bahrain and Australia

The German, who has taken pole for both races held so far this year, was second behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton in today's second practice session but reckons the opposition has closed in.

"I was not 100 per cent happy today, we still have to get a little bit quicker," said Vettel.

"The McLarens and the Mercedes look very quick, Ferrari I think have a decent long run pace so we need to see."

He was unwilling to predict whether Red Bull had enough speed for him to continue his pole streak.

"We need to see where we are after today and then we set our targets, but for sure hopefully Q3 and then try to finish as high up as we can to start at the front," Vettel said.

His Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber was stopped by an engine problem early in today's second practice session. But he remained upbeat about the car's performance.

"You never want your Fridays disturbed and today it has cost us a lot of track time, but the car felt pretty good," Webber said. "It's never ideal to lose an engine but we did.

"The car feels good in the quick stuff, but I wouldn't say we have a particular weakness in terms of high speed and low speed corners, we are good in both."

He also played down the engine issue, describing the Renault V8 in question as "pretty high mileage".