Red Bull in a “very strong position”, says Hamilton

Hamilton will start third on ultrasofts, and both Ricciardo ahead and Max Verstappen behind him are on the supersoft tyre, and thus will potentially have an advantage.

“Getting past Daniel, either a pit stop or safety car generally is the only way to get past here,” Hamilton said when asked by Motorsport.com.

“I don’t know which one of those is going to come and work for me. Obviously, I’m going to try and get round him at the start, and if I don’t then I have to try and stay close behind.

"But their tyres should be able to go longer, and they’ve got more downforce as well, so they are in a very strong position.”

Hamilton noted that the start in Singapore usually sees some action. “It is a difficult Turn 1, because you defend on the inside, and people can brake really late on the outside – you’ve seen Fernando really floor it on the outside.

"A lot of people, the further back they go, they generally just go straight, and don’t get in trouble. It’s really weird! You can’t do that in the first five cars, six cars, whatever.

"But further back people just go straight to avoid an incident. And some have gained positions and not even been penalised in previous years.

“But it is quite a tight Turn 1, obviously because it comes back and we go in there at quite a rate. So it’s about trying to get through there cleanly in general. Risk/reward is about the same as any other race, but this is definitely not the easiest Turn 1."

Set-up uncertainties

The biggest problem in qualifying was that in practice various issues meant that Hamilton had not had a clean run on the ultrasoft, and thus had not been able to hone the set-up.

“The track is constantly ramping up, and there are only a certain amount of opportunities because these tyres only really do one lap.

"For example, in P3 we had this issue with the front suspension that was basically not working, and locking up was obviously a big, big issue for me in that same place where it kept locking up. And then I just had to kind of brush it off and get into qualifying.

“My first lap felt OK, and then basically I only really have four laps to find the ultimate balance. I think I did the best job I could with what I had, but it wasn’t going in a spectacular direction.

"I think Nico found a comfortable place and has been building on it all weekend really. Sometimes that happens. I not really too fazed by it.”

Hamilton admits there are still some question marks over his set-up heading into the race. “I didn’t do the long run yesterday so I don’t know.

"I might luck in and it might be just right for tomorrow, but it doesn’t sound particularly likely that that’s the case. It might be the case that it’s just not great but we should be able to hold position at least.

"I will find out definitely tomorrow. But for sure the time lost yesterday has proven to be more valuable than I thought.”