Daniel Ricciardo was pleased to split the two Mercedes as he put his Red Bull on the front row for the Singapore Grand Prix on Sunday.

The Australian had shown good pace throughout free practice and he maintained that into qualifying as he claimed second place behind pole sitter Nico Rosberg.

Ricciardo finished five tenths behind the German's time of one minute 42.584 seconds, but he was able to stop a Mercedes lock-out by pushing Lewis Hamilton into third.

With Max Verstappen completing the top four it was a good day for Red Bull as their rivals Ferrari struggled - Kimi Raikkonen fifth and Sebastian Vettel starting from the back.

"I am pleased enough – the aim was to be in on the front row, we knew it would be tough to get in front of the Mercedes, but it was nice to be in front of at least one of them," said Ricciardo.

"We made improvements through qualifying. In practice we were still trying to find stuff in the car, and it finally came good in qualifying. The rhythm throughout the session was good. 

"We qualified on the supersofts, and we will start the race on that tyre. We will see if that makes a difference. 

"The last lap in Q3 was clean, probably not as good as Nico's, but good enough to get on the front row."