'A good chance' Red Bull will set pace - Verstappen

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Max Verstappen says there is "a good chance" Red Bull will be the team to beat at this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix but is wary of heightened expectation.

Red Bull was quickest in Monaco earlier this season and also finished second in Singapore last year - courtesy of Daniel Ricciardo - as Mercedes struggled. Verstappen is confident Red Bull will again be strong and could set the pace but stopped short of making predictions until after Friday practice.

"We just focus on our own thing," Verstappen said. "People can write what they want. We have a good chance. I think if you look compared to last year the car definitely improved on our side… wait and see. It is difficult for me to say we will be the number one team because I haven’t driven. We will know how good we are tomorrow.

"I think that this track should suit us better. We don’t know yet how well it will suit us, but when you look at last year and the previous years, it is definitely a better track for us.

"I think we know more tomorrow. At the moment yes we have good hopes that we can be very competitive, but how well I don’t know yet. But hopefully we are very competitive like for example in Monaco."

While Red Bull could be fighting for victory this weekend, Verstappen says the atmosphere within the team is no different to any other race.

"We are all very motivated, but we are always motivated. Even in Monza when we knew that we don’t have a chance to win, we still want to get the best possible result."

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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.