Verstappen: We can't fight for pole

Max Verstappen has denied that Red Bull can fight for pole position in tomorrow’s qualifying session for the Singapore Grand Prix despite finishing second to team mate Daniel Ricciardo in FP1 earlier today.

The Red Bull has been good on tight and twisty tracks this season, as shown at Monaco, where Daniel Ricciardo dominated the weekend, topping every single session on the way to his first Monaco Grand Prix win.

Ricciardo topped the first session here in Marina Bay, two tenths ahead of Verstappen, although they were slower in FP2, only managing third and fourth, with Verstappen on top this time.

Despite this seemingly strong showing, the Dutchman has played down his team’s chances of scoring a pole position this weekend.

Verstappen qualified P2 last year before being involved in a first lap pile up with both Ferraris, effectively ending Sebastian Vettel’s title challenge.

Verstappen said: “It was OK, I think we can still improve with the car.

“It was not the perfect day for me, but we will see what's going to happen tomorrow.

“I don't think we have the pace to fight for pole, but we'll try to optimise the car a bit more.

“We’re a bit too far away so we still need to improve the car a bit more, but we have another night to work on that, and we’ll see where we end up.”

The youngster also revealed that the hypersoft tyre compound is not a good race tyre. He added: “The hypersoft is not amazing in the long run. It very quickly goes away.”