Ricciardo not surprised to be looking good in Singapore

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Daniel Ricciardo said that he wasn't surprised to end Friday fastest, after Red Bull dominated Singapore's first two free practice sessions at Marina Bay.

“I knew we’d come here with a good car,” he told Sky Sports F1 following the end of the second 90-minute session.

"I feel prepared, so I’m not surprised with our performance today," he added.

Naturally, finishing Friday fastest was just the first step in a long race weekend. Qualifying will be vital on the tight and twisting track, where overtaking in the race is always a tall order.

“It’s important that we obviously keep that tomorrow," Ricciardo acknowledged. "But I have a lot of faith we can stay here all weekend."

Ricciardio's best time of 1:40.852s was an impressive half a second faster than anyone else, even his team mate Max Verstappen.

With Singapore well established as a 'bogey' circuit for Mercedes, Ferrari had been expected to be Red Bull's main rivals this weekend. Instead, Kimi Raikkonen was only ninth fastest and almost two seconds slower than Ricciardo.

FP2: Ricciardo stays in charge in Singapore night practice

Raikkonen's team mate Sebastian Vettel had been second fastest in the first session. However, he was unable to get a clean lap on ultrasofts completed in FP2 ended up a lowly 11th.

"Seb was there this morning so I think they’ll get it together,” Ricciardo predicted. "I don’t know what programme they were on this afternoon."

“I’m sure we’ll tighten up tomorrow," he said. "But I still expect we’ll be able to stay where we are."

Ricciardo was also asked about reports that Renault had tried to secure his services for 2018. It had reportedly been proposed as part of the complex engine negotiations with Red Bull, Toro Rosso, McLaren and Honda.

Instead, it has now been confirmed that it is Carlos Sainz who be will go on loan to the French works team next season.

"I’m not surprised,” Ricciardo said when asked about the rumours he had been Renault's first choice. "I’m good-looking and fast!"

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.