Sebastian Vettel is not fazed about Red Bull's pole position run coming to an end in Korea, saying he's just happy to have split the McLarens.
Lewis Hamilton brought Red Bull's Saturday afternoon domination to an end at the Yeongam circuit, putting in a 1:35.820 to pip Vettel to the coveted grid slot by 0.222s.
But, given McLaren's blistering pace in the earlier practice sessions, Vettel says he at least got closer to Hamilton than he had expected to be.
"To be honest I think McLaren were very, very competitive yesterday," said the newly-crowned F1 Champ.
"You could see that they were a fair chunk ahead of everyone else, including us. I think that we pushed them very, very hard in qualifying and got very close, I think closer than what they expected and closer than what we expected in some regards.
"I think we did a very good job, also we saved all of our Prime tyres which I think will be crucial for tomorrow."
Looking ahead to Sunday's 55-lap grand prix, the 24-year-old believes tyres could play a crucial role as will the start.
"We only had a rough idea this morning with a little bit more fuel in the car, so I think we're in a good position. It's not a long way down to the first corner and then Turn 3 is a little bit exposed, so we'll see."
He added: "It's a long race, a lot of things can happen and tyre wear will be crucial. Jenson did a very, very good job in the last race in particular, so again I think that will be very important tomorrow."
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