Ricciardo qualifies second, may have strategic advantage in Singapore
Daniel Ricciardo could upset World Championship contenders Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton in Singapore after qualifying between them in second place.
Ricciardo will also be starting on a different tire, after both he and Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen used supersofts to get out of Q2. The other main contenders are committed to ultrasofts.
"The aim was to try to be on the front row," said Ricciardo. "We knew it would be hard to try and get in front of the Mercedes, so it was nice to at least get one. We made improvements for qualifying through practice. We were still trying to find some stuff with the car and it finally came good in qualifying, got better, the rhythm for the session was good.
"We qualified on the supersoft for Q2, so we'll start the race on that tire. Obviously we feel it's a good thing; let's see if it makes a difference tomorrow, but the last lap in Q3 was clean. It probably wasn't as good as Nico's, but it was clean and good enough for the front row."
Ricciardo said he was confident in the bold strategy: "It was always the plan, even before the weekend. We expected other teams to do it as well. I would say we are but surprised we are the only ones. Obviously we have to pick the tires a long way before the race. I don't know if it was the case that Mercedes or Ferrari for example didn't have enough supersofts to perhaps qualify on them."
"Let's see tomorrow. It's a bit like Monaco. We did that thinking it would be the right thing, then we didn't get a chance to see it with the wet start. But tomorrow, I think it's going to be dry here so we'll get a chance to see if it works."
Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner admits that Daniel Ricciardo's second place on the Singapore grid is a bonus after Red Bull banked on securing third and fourth places behind the Mercedes duo.
A bad final lap for Lewis Hamilton and a superb one for Ricciardo combined to get the Aussie onto the front row.
"Absolutely," said Horner, when asked if third had been the realistic target. "Daniel produced a fantastic second lap, particularly sectors two and three. Quite tricky to string all three together and get the most out of the ultrasoft tire.
"He nailed it on that second run, so a great performance by him. Rosberg's first lap was remarkable, he couldn't get anywhere near that on his second one, which was quite interesting. I think these tires are so sensitive if you get the right sweet spot, the lap times comes relatively easily."
The choice of supersofts for the start opens up all sorts of strategic scenarios for the race. Both drivers have few examples of each tire left for Sunday, including the soft.
"I think the only way we are going to beat them is to do something different. Let's see what happens. You never know with safety cars, and that kind of thing. Let's get into the race and go from there."
Asked if the main target was to guarantee a two-stop rather than three-stop race, Horner said: "I think you've got to be flexible. With safety cars here you've got to plan for all occasions. They were comfortable on both tires to be honest, so no issues, and we've still got plenty of tires. I think we've got all options open, which is good, because not all the teams have that. It's going to be an interesting race."
Horner is not concerned about having both cars on the dirty side of the grid.
"I think there are so many support races earlier in the day that it will clean things up. We've started there the last couple of years as well. Hopefully we can get a decent run into the first turn, and get our heads down from there."
