Daniel Ricciardo believes a perfect lap still wouldn't have been enough to close the half second advantage Nico Rosberg held over him during qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix.
The Red Bull driver starts from the front-row alongside pole sitter Rosberg, but the Mercedes driver dominated all three segments to such an extent, that even team-mate Lewis Hamilton didn't have an answer, finishing third quickest.
Ricciardo is confident he achieved the maximum after a difficult start to the weekend.
"I'm pleased with the front row," said the Australian. "We set ourselves up well and the lap was clean, but obviously Nico created a big gap and I would have loved for him to not be that far ahead.
"Even with a perfect lap I don’t think we could have caught that up. So I did what I had to do and the last sector was good. I kept the tyres in good condition and that was important. That was a bit of a weakness earlier in the weekend so I was happy to get on top of that."
Ricciardo is hopeful that Red Bull's differing strategy to its rivals will give them an extra edge during the race, after they chose to qualify on the supersoft over the ultrasoft during Q2, meaning they'll start on the harder compound.
"The supersoft is what we’re going to start the race on and we seem to be the only team in the top ten doing that so hopefully it works for us.
"We did that in Monaco but then we didn’t get to see if it worked because of the rain on Sunday. If we can get the start we want I think we can control the situation tomorrow, but it’s not a predictable race."
Max Verstappen wasn't so pleased with his qualifying after suffering from balance issues which upset the tyres.
"Qualifying wasn’t fantastic and I am disappointed with my starting position," he said. "The car felt good throughout the weekend during the practice sessions and I was very comfortable in the car but it didn’t come together for qualifying.
"I was struggling throughout the whole session to warm up the front tyres and the balance wasn’t quite right, there was a lot of front wheel locking so the lap just didn’t come together, which is a shame.
"We have good race pace and we also have a different strategy to Mercedes as we start on the supersofts, so we’ll see how it’s going to work out during the race, hopefully we can improve on P4."
