MARINA BAY, Singapore -- Daniel Ricciardo still believes he can win the Singapore Grand Prix despite qualifying third on the grid on Saturday.
Following a strong performance in Friday practice, Ricciardo was hoping to embark on a "dominant weekend" ahead of championship rivals Ferrari and Mercedes. But when it came to the final session of qualifying, Sebastian Vettel put together an unbeatable lap time and Ricciardo was also beaten to second place by teammate Max Verstappen.
Asked if he still felt he could win on Sunday, Ricciardo said: "Yeah. I still believe so.
"Today, I'll accept a little bit of defeat but there's still a lot to play tomorrow. For sure I'd like to be in Sebastian's position today. I thought pole would be on, but we couldn't quite run the limit in the last qualifying.
"It's a long lap -- you gain a bit, you lose a bit, you kind of say I could've got more there -- but I think the gap was, in the end, three or four tenths, it was quite significant.
"Looking forward to what we can do tomorrow, I think it's really on the cusp of one or two stop so it's going to make it exciting. They might have to carry us out of the cars tomorrow, but I'm sure we'll have a great strong race and get some big points."
Ricciardo said he would have to make the most of the start in order to stand a chance of winning on Sunday.
"For sure my intention is to try and go forward. I think here, at this track it's hard to pass. Obviously the start is a big opportunity so the intention is to go for it, and see what happens. We'll see what happens after Turn 1."