Verstappen: "We're looking very strong!"

Max Verstappen was feeling upbeat and confident after Red Bull finished Friday's free practice sessions with a 1-2 on the timesheets.

Daniel Ricciardo set the pace in both FP1 and FP2. Verstappen was just over a tenth off his team mate's pace in the first session, but dropped half a second off the Australian under the floodlights after sunset.

"Finishing first and second in the last session means it has been a positive Friday," Verstappen insisted.

"The car in general performed well so we are happy with that side," he continued. "The balance can always be improved

"We are a bit down on top speed but nothing major to work on," he added.

Verstappen, who turns 20 at the end of the month, said that things were looking good for qualifying on Saturday for the Singapore Grand Prix.

"After such a good day we have to believe that a very good result in qualifying is possible, so we will go for it," he agreed.

FP2: Ricciardo stays in charge in Singapore night practice

"Compared to our competitors we look very strong," he said. "We didn’t expect to be this competitive.

"Of course this is very pleasing for us.

"We still have to be cautious," he noted, adding that he expected Red Bull's rivals to perform better in qualifying. Mercedes was the closest competition on Friday, despite Singapore being something of a 'bogey' circuit for the Silver Arrows in the past.

The surprise of the day was the slump in form for Ferrari. But Verstappen didn't expect that to still be the case on Saturday.

"We know that in Q3 tomorrow they will have improved and be closer," he stated. "For now we look in a good position.

"Qualifying will be tight but I’m confident that our race pace offers us the chance of a good result.

"We know this should be one of our best tracks, so we will do our best to capitalise on that."

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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.