Sorry, that won't help, and the efficiency improvement would be very marginal.

If you could move the pump 10' below water level, you might succeed, but not 1 - 2 feet. The flow rate incoming to your pump is much greater than the "gravity feed' rate, so even with the pump lower, the pipe goes into a suction state (below atmospheric pressure) as soon as the pump is on.

This company has been around for a long time: http://www.leaktools.com/
and has some leak detection guidelines posted on their site.