Hamilton: Ricciardo 'in a very strong position'

40

Lewis Hamilton is wary of the threat posed by Daniel Ricciardo in today's Singapore Grand Prix, saying the Red Bull driver is "in a very strong position".

Ricciardo outqualified Hamilton on Saturday as the championship leader struggled with the set-up of his car following limited running this weekend. With the two Red Bull drivers starting on supersoft tyres - with Max Verstappen alongside Hamilton on row two - the Briton believes he faces a difficult task to try and get ahead of Ricciardo.

REPORT: Impressive Rosberg beats Ricciardo to Singapore pole

“Getting past Daniel could be a pit stop or a Safety Car, generally that’s the only way to get past," Hamilton said. "I don’t know which one is going to work for me. Obviously I will try and get him at the start, but if I don’t then I will just try and stay close behind but their tyres should be able to go a long way and they’ve got more downforce as well so they are in a very strong position.”

And Hamilton says the start of the race does not provide an obvious best line to take in order to try and gain positions due to the tight nature of the opening few corners.

“It is a difficult Turn 1 because you defend on the inside and people can brake really late on the outside, we’ve seen Fernando [Alonso] floor it down the outside. And a lot of people the further back you go they generally just go straight and don’t get in trouble.

"It’s really weird, you can’t do that in the first five or six cars but further back you look at replays and people just go straight to avoid an incident. Some have gained positions and not been penalised for it in previous years. But it is quite a tight Turn 1 and it comes back on you and we go in there at quite a rate.

"It’s just about trying to get through it clean in general. Risk reward is kind of the same as any other race but this is definitely not the easiest Turn 1.”

Silbermann says ... Not so sleepy in Singapore

Romain Grosjean column: Drivers have a certain shelf life

Chris Medland's 2016 Singapore Grand Prix preview

TECHNICAL: Under the skin of the Red Bull RB12

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.