'We couldn't have done more at Singapore', says Horner

© XPB 

Team boss Christian Horner says that Red Bull could have done nothing more in Singapore to snatch victory from Mercedes, despite the close finish to last weekend's Grand Prix.

Horner praised the efforts of Daniel Ricciardo, who was able to eat into Nico Rosberg's lead at Marina Bay over the final 15 laps after a late switch to supersoft tyres which saw him come within half a second of taking the the lead before ultimately he ran out of time to pull it off.

"Nico had a very strong weekend, and he had a bit too much for us in qualifying, and in the race," admitted Horner. "We tried everything we could. We tried a different strategy at the end of the race, which forced them to stick to the two stop.

"Whilst Daniel did a fantastic job to close Nico down over the last laps, they just left enough in hand to keep a margin to the chequered flag.

"To get within half a second after two hours was a great performance, but it was not quite enough."

Horner added that being held up by lapped traffic - specifically Haas F1's Esteban Gutierrez - hadn't made any significant difference to the way that the race had turned out.

"Not really. We picked up DRS from Gutierrez so what we lost we gained. It cost Rosberg probably a little bit more than us, so it evened out.

"That was as close, unfortunately, that we could get," he conceded. "But it made an exciting finish to the race, and it was great to put him under a bit of pressure."

Horner was full of praise for Ricciardo's driving throughout the whole weekend at Singapore.

"I think ever since he drove the HRT car round here you can see he’s always enjoyed this circuit. He’s found a rhythm around here and a confidence, and street circuits are an awful lot about confidence.

"He’s performed at an immensely high level this weekend, no mistakes, and he’s driven an excellent grand prix at one of the toughest races of the year, two hours in duration to finish within half a second. It’s pretty impressive."

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