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SINGAPORE - Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo was only looking at the positives despite seeing a first Formula 1 pole position snatched away from him at the final stages of 2014 Singapore GP qualifying by title-chasing Mercedes duo Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Ricciardo had clocked the fastest time with his final lap at the Marina Bay Street Circuit on Saturday (September 20), only to see Rosberg and then Hamilton better his mark of one minute 45.854 seconds by only 0.173.
Rather than being fed up by the near miss, Ricciardo, who has won races in Canada, Hungary and Belgium, was just happy to be so close to the feuding Mercedes duo.
'IT WAS A GOOD DAY'
Ricciardo said: "It's encouraging. Coming into the weekend I thought that if we could be within two or three tenths Mercedes it should give us an optimistic chance of staying with them in the race.
"I think we ended up a little closer than we thought we would, particularly after yesterday, so it was a good day."
Ricciardo, who is third in the championship behind the Mercedes pair, finished just ahead of his Red Bull team mate and quadruple world champion Sebastian Vettel, who was only 0.221 off pole.
They will start ahead of Ferrari's Fernando Alonso (fifth) and Kimi Raikkonen (seventh) and the Williams pair of Felipe Massa (sixth) and eight-placed Valtteri Bottas, who was only half a second down on Hamilton in a tight qualifying session.
Ricciardo said: "It's amazing how close we are. Monaco is a street circuit but it's a lot shorter lap so you can expect us to be closer but this one, yeah, it's pretty cool how many cars are within half a second or a second.
"So, it's going to be a fun race tomorrow definitely. I think tyres will be key, as always, but particularly here. It's not going to be as straightforward as Monza with a one-stop. So, it should be fun."
HEAVY RAIN
Heavy rain fell shortly after Saturday's (September 20) qualifying session ended with more forecast for Sunday which could throw open the 61-lap race on the winding and demanding circuit.
Ricciardo said the punishing race, which Alonso predicted would hit the two-hour time limit rather than go the 61 laps, was one everyone on the grid looked forward to.
Ricciardo said: "Street circuits are fun. I think all us drivers enjoy them. You jump across kerbs, you brush near the wall, it's a little bit like the closer you get the more you want to risk and I guess that's why we race, we love that rush, that adrenalin.
"It's like speed, we wish we could go faster. It's a bit like that when you come to a street circuit, you just really enjoy handling the car, playing with fire, so to speak.
"It's not always the quickest way when it's sliding around but I think you've got to take hold on a street circuit so that's where I get the enjoyment."
VETTEL'S ENGINE WOES
Vettel, who has won the last three races in Singapore, did not share his team mate's joy at making the second row of the grid.
Vettel who had engine failure at the end of practice on Friday and only did five laps in the second session, thought he should have beaten the Mercedes duo: "I think pole was manageable today
"I could have done a better job today by just getting a better lap together but I didn't so I can't be happy with that. Definitely I think if you look at raw lap times I think I should have been higher up but I am not so."
2014 Singapore GP:
Qualifying
Third Practice Session
Second practice
First practice
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