Max Verstappen took a podium in the Singapore Grand prix – he finished second. Meanwhile, his Red Bull teammate started 6th and finished 6th.
“It was a shame to lose a position to Sebastian [Vettel] so early on but there was not a lot I could do as we were both flat out. I should have been able to hold the line but I just couldn’t match his speed. My only real chance to win was at the start, unfortunately, it was a bit all over the place and I knew my chance had gone”, Verstappen commented.
“Luckily the team had me on a great strategy and therefore managed to get me back into second place with a brilliant pit stop. When I got close to Lewis [Hamilton] due to backmarkers I never really thought the pass would be possible. It’s hard to overtake here so I didn’t want to take the risk. It was also slightly unfair how he had been held up by drivers not getting out of the way. I had a few driveability issues again behind the Safety Car and pulling away from the pit stop was dreadful, but in the end, we managed it well and got the result we wanted. After the way the car has felt at certain points this weekend, qualifying on the front row and taking second place today is an amazing result.”
Really happy finishing 2nd, despite technical difficulties! A great @redbullracing team result: hard work pays off ?? #KeepPushing #SingaporeGP pic.twitter.com/8J4U31v3Fk
— Max Verstappen (@Max33Verstappen) September 16, 2018
Verstappen: My only real chance to win was at the start but it was gone quickly
Ricciardo added: “In the end, the race was a bit as we expected but we hoped for some sort of ultimate strategy. We tried something different by going long on the Hypersoft and we had good pace but a street circuit is only really great if you are on pole, otherwise, it’s not only hard to overtake but even to follow. Qualifying is so important here and the race was really lost [on Saturday]. I could catch Kimi [Raikkonen], I would stay close to him for a couple of laps and then I would have to back-off. I had the pace to get back on his gearbox. But I was never quite close enough to make a move.”
“I really had to hope for a mistake or that Kimi and Valtteri [Bottas] would start tangling and I could capitalise. I got close at Turn 13 on the last lap, but it wasn’t close enough. Street circuits are my favourite tracks to drive but they can also be frustrating. In Monaco, I listened to Lewis in seventh place complaining about following closely. And now I understand what he was complaining about. I think everyone was in the same boat. I would have loved to fight for something more but I couldn’t. Last night we spent quite a few hours here trying to figure it all out and I hope in Russia everything will fall into place. We’ll keep fighting, try to get better and maybe we can get a win at a circuit where we don’t expect it.”
Night races are the best races! ? Thank you #SingaporeGP ??? #F1NightRace pic.twitter.com/8TsyE1Q52I
— Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) September 16, 2018
