Daniel Ricciardo is remaining upbeat about his victory chances at the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday, despite losing out to Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen in qualifying.
The Australian had set the quickest time of the weekend in practice on Friday and was many people’s favourite to finally add to his sole pole position in F1 from Monaco last year. However, come Q3, Sebastian Vettel emerged to pip both Red Bulls for his fourth Marina Bay pole.
Though a little disappointed, Ricciardo admitted the inability to turn up the power during the session once again hurt but was maintaining focus on the race.
“I thought pole would be on but we couldn’t quite run with him [Vettel] in this qualifying,” he said. “It is a long lap, so you gain a bit here and lose a bit there, but three-to-four tenths was quite significant.
“Once qualifying starts we pretty much put it all in, so no secrets for Q3,” Ricciardo added, referring to the extra power modes Ferrari and Mercedes have. “Today I will accept a little bit of defeat but there is still a lot to play for [in the race]. It is on the cusp of one or two stops, so it could be exciting.
“I am still confident we will get the victory, we have a good package. Seb turned it on in qualifying but we will be back tomorrow.”
Contemplating his drivers’ chances on Sunday, Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner pointed to a key difference between the goals of Ricciardo, Verstappen, who will start second, and Vettel ahead.
“The drivers extracted everything there was out of the car, and we just don’t have that last little bit,” he conceded initially, looking back on qualifying. “But the race pace that we showed yesterday puts us in good step for the race. Happy with a front row start and third as well.
“If we can get a good start, have a good race pace then hopefully we can give them a hard time tomorrow. We’ve got nothing to lose. Seb has got a championship to think about.”
