- Singapore GP - Qualifying
Ricciardo: We can fight with Mercedes
Daniel Ricciardo hopes to take the fight to Mercedes on Sunday after qualifying just two tenths off the front row for the Singapore Grand Prix.
In Q1 and Q2 it looked as though Red Bull had dropped behind Ferrari in the battle for pole, but Ricciardo turned in two excellent laps in a thrilling Q3 where four tenths covered the top six drivers. The second one briefly put him on provisional pole and, even though Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg eventually locked out the front row, Ricciardo thinks Saturday is proof the Mercedes will have to keep one eye on those behind them tomorrow.
"It's definitely encouraging," Ricciardo said. "Coming into the weekend I thought if we could be within two or three tenths it gives us more optimistic chance of staying with them in the race. We ended up a bit closer than we thought we would, particularly after yesterday, so it was a good day.
"At Monaco it's a street circuit but it's a shorter lap but you expect to be closer, but on this one it's pretty cool to have so many cars within half a second or a second. It's going to be a fun race tomorrow, definitely, tyres are going to be key, but it's also not going to be as simple as Monza where we had a one stop."
There was a loud roar when Ricciardo put himself on provisional pole and he admits he was buoyed to see so much support from Australia.
"I've got a few mates here this weekend and there's probably a few more here I don't know about. It's close to home so its nice to see a few Aussie fans and hopefully I'll keep it up tomorrow and see a better view from the podium! It's good fun out there, the track was really improving so you had to adapt a lot during the session. Street circuits usually tend to be like that so it keeps you on your toes - it's good fun."
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