© FOTO STUDIO COLOMBO PER PIRELLI MEDIA (© COPYRIGHT FREE)
Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo separated the Mercedes pair of Niko Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton as he continued his good form in Singapore.
This weekend’s racing comes in the form of the Sepang circuit in Malaysia.
Both Ricciardo and Verstappen have opted for four hard, three medium and six soft compound tyres for the track that is known for its humid conditions.
The 18-year-old said:” The pace on the soft tyre felt decent, I feel like that tyre has potential on a long run and it allowed me to throw the car into the corners like I wanted to.
“The weather can vary quite a bit as well. We can get some pretty big storms, but then the track can dry up very quickly because of the high temperature.”
Red Bull have chosen a different strategy to Mercedes as Lewis Hamilton and Niko Rosberg have chosen eight sets of the soft tyre.
Which could mean Mercedes will aim to use the speed alongside the soft compound to make sure they are faster than the rest during the race.
For Christian Horner’s team this could be a case of using the hard tyre at the start so that they can use the soft tyre at the end of the race to gain more points if necessary.
“Malaysia physically is a hot one. We usually go there at the beginning of the season so it is going to be interesting going there now with a lot more development on the car and seeing how it performs.
“I checked the weather and it seems pretty constant all year round so that shouldn’t change much, but Sepang has been resurfaced so that could be interesting for tyre life,” said Ricciardo.
Dominic Rust