Verstappen leads Red Bull one-two in first practice

After a strong performance on the opening day of practice for the Singapore Grand Prix, Daniel Ricciardo feels he can achieve a little bit more speed from the RB16.

Nico Rosberg has admitted that he is wary of Ferrari and Red Bull, despite topping the times in the second free practice session.

Verstappen, running the only version of Renault’s updated power unit this weekend, was the quicker of the two Red Bulls in both sessions on Friday. We can find a few things tonight. “After Monaco this is definitely the best track for us”. “I am not discouraged by the pace”.

“We still feel that we can get a little bit more speed out of the auto so that’s what tonight is for”.

He acknowledged that the team is “definitely closer” to Mercedes, and was buoyed by the small deficit on the timesheets if he can improve his RB12’s balance.

Ricciardo, who claimed a second place finish at last year’s race, refused to reveal whether he had been hiding his true pace during second practice after appearing to back out of his final ultra-soft run, having been 0.4s up in the first sector.

“The ultra-soft is a amusing one”.

I think we need to just find a little bit more in the set up, I know the auto quite well now so I know there’s a few things on it which can be better so hopefully we jag that tonight and prepare it well for tomorrow. So we will look into it.

“We think more or less we understand the situation, but we thought that as well past year and in the end we have to concentrate on ourselves and maximise what we’ve got”.

“I think at the moment we’re not quite there where we need to be, I think we’re close enough, I think with what we’ve got we’d probably have to get a little bit lucky to snatch pole”.