Ricciardo “not really looking towards” Mercedes

Daniel Ricciardo says he is not focussing on Mercedes, as he believes the defending champions will “turn it up” during Saturday’s qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.

Red Bull had expected the Marina Bay Circuit to suit their RB11, and duly delivered on the fist day of free practice. Daniil Kvyat set the pace in FP2, with Ricciardo only 0.114s slower than his team-mate in third and ahead of the lead Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton.

The Aussie had already looked quite frisky in the opening session by occupying the same spot, only three tenths adrift of Nico Rosberg’s table-topping time.

“I hope that is [Mercedes]’ real pace,” said Ricciardo. “We will see. I am not really looking towards them tomorrow; I am sure that they will turn it up and find the way.”

“Ferrari and Williams normally turn it up on Saturday. Hopefully whatever they do will not be too much, and we can fight for somewhere on the podium.”

Ricciardo arrived in Singapore with a view to repeating his Hungary performance, where he and Red Bull had been fast from the get-go. The 26-year-old now hopes his team can carry the momentum forward all weekend.

“I am just happy that we started off on the right foot today. The car felt pretty strong out of the box.

“As expected it is performing well around here, so fingers crossed the other guys don’t find too much speed tomorrow and we stay more or less where we are.”

Despite rumours swirling around Red Bull’s future in F1, Ricciardo kept his usual sunny disposition when quizzed on the situation.

“To be honest, that is why I started to invest in this go kart team – Ricciardo Karts, so I am going to do a season of that next year and see how we go. That was a joke by the way.”

REPORT: Kvyat heads Raikkonen in competitive FP2

2016 F1 driver line-ups so far

Click here for some of the most memorable crashes at Singapore

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