Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton says stopping all-Red Bull frontrow in Singapore 'tough' ask

Lewis Hamilton fears that Mercedes face a "tough" challenge to qualify on the frontrow for the Singapore GP - but is optimistic there is more pace in the W04 than Practice Two suggested.

While the team's P2 deficit to Red Bull was surprisingly large given the street circuit should play to the W04's strengths, Ross Brawn implied that Mercedes perhaps hadn't shown their full hand at the same time. The Team Principal pointed to less-than-ideal opening super-soft tyre laps for both Hamilton and Rosberg, and the gruelling 5km circuit's high fuel effect, as reasons to stay optimistic for the weekend. "We enjoyed a solid first day of running here in Singapore. In the second session, we didn't quite get our first timed laps together on low fuel but that will come tomorrow, I am sure," Brawn said. "Then we completed our usual running on race fuel with both types of tyre. It's hard to know exactly where we stand because there is a high lap time effect for running extra fuel at this circuit, so that can mix the field somewhat. "The car seemed reasonably consistent today which has given us a good platform to work from tomorrow."