Max Verstappen says Singapore GP represents Red Bull's best chance for victory

The Singapore GP represents Red Bull's best chance to defeat Mercedes since their near-miss in May's Monaco GP, according to Max Verstappen.

Last year's race at Marina Bay remains the last time Mercedes were beaten when at least one of their cars finished the race, with Red Bull's victory at May's Spanish GP only coming after Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg took each other out on the first lap.

The Singapore GP: How close is it?

After experiencing a performance aberration on the street circuit last year, Mercedes finished in their usual position at the head of the order on Friday, although their single-lap advantage over Ferrari and Red Bull was relatively small by normal standards, three tenths of a second.

And Verstappen, who finished as the lead Red Bull driver in third, said that while Mercedes "look pretty strong again" his team were shaping up nicely too.

"My second session wasn't perfect, but we're still up there," he said. "So we can be happy. We can still improve quite a bit, so I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

"It's definitely our best chance [for a win]. After Monaco, this is definitely the best track for us."

While Red Bull did not run on the soft tyres at any stage of Friday, their pace on the other two compounds - the ultrasoft and supersoft - appeared competitive on heavier fuel in Practice Two.

Daniel Ricciardo wound up fourth fastest but was on course to challenge Nico Rosberg's pacesetting lap before losing time through the final sector.

Practice Report: Rosberg fastest as Hamilton hits trouble

The Australian, who finished second to Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel last year in Singapore and would have won in Monaco but for a botched final pit stop, labelled the end of his lap "a bit scrappy", acknowledging he had probably taken too much life out of his tyres.

However, he added: "I'm not discouraged with the pace. Where we are is pretty good considering where I feel we can be with the car. There's still a lot more we can get out of it, so if we can find that we'll be looking alright tomorrow.

"But it's close, as predicted - three teams within half a second."

It was Ferrari who wound up closest to Mercedes on the final timesheet, though, with Kimi Raikkonen leading their charge in second place.

"Hard to say if we can be strong, it's only Friday, but the feeling was positive," said Raikkonen. "So far so good, but tomorrow is another day, we'll see where everybody is and then we'll go from there.

"We'll give our best and hopefully we have the speed to challenge our rivals."