Ricciardo shatters Singapore track record

Aussie F1 driver Daniel Ricciardo set the leading pace at the end if the first day of action ahead of this weekend's Singapore Grand Prix placing his Red Bull over half a second ahead of his young Dutch teammate, Max Verstappen.

"It was a good day out there today, but I expected this, to be honest, and am not really surprised with our performance. I knew we would come here with a good car,' Dani Ric said.

Current championship leader, Lewis Hamilton could only muster the third best time, seven tenths behind Ricciardo record setting best time with his teammate, Valtteri Bottas who struggled through both sessions and finally finished a further half a second behind in fourth.

“In terms of the programme, it was a clean and straightforward day, but performance-wise a bit more of a mixed bag,” said Mercedes man James Allison. “Lewis is showing some encouraging pace on the Soft tyre, but we've got a bit more to do on the Qualifying tyre. Valtteri on the other hand had a tough day and we've got some work to do with him to get him up to Lewis' pace. The whole team needs to raise its game a bit overnight to be able to compete on even terms with the Red Bulls.”

Nico Hulkenberg was a very pleasing fifth for Renault with Stoffel Vandoorne a close sixth and his McLaren Honda teammate, Fernando Alonso in seventh,

Sergio Perez was the top Force India driver in eighth with teammate Esteban Ocon in tenth.

The surprise of the day was that Ferrari were as far down the order as they were with Kimi Raikkonen in ninth and Vettel in 11^th. Although he failed to get a run on the ultrasoft, his pace was over two seconds off Ricciardo's best and the softer tyre would of have made up that much difference.