M♊ax Verstappen has 🎃played down suggestions that Red Bull could be the leading candidates for victory at this weekend’s Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix.

Red Bull arrives in Singapore hopeful of challenging for its third win of the season at the tight and twisty ﷽Marina Bay Street Circuit, which, on paper at least, should favour the team’s RB15 package.

Mercedes is also expected to fare well given 🥀its strong performances so far this season at high-downforce tracks with slow-speed corners, while Ferrari is braced for a more difficult weekend following consecutive victories at Spa and Monza.

🦄“Sometimes🍬 you think a track is not ideal and then you win a race,” Verstappen explained.

“Sometimes you have to be a bit lucky for that. Sometimes you are just very quick. I expect to have a goo𓆏d weekend, but s✤till, there are no guarantees.

“There are a lot of things you need to get right in qualifying as well, but in general throughout 𒁃the whole weekend, to find a goꩲod set-up.

“Around here, with day practice and b𝓰ack into 👍the night, you can’t get caught out with the settings.

“There are stilཧl a lot of things to get rig🐈ht before we can talk about having a really good result.”

Red Bul🎐l has appeared to close the gap to its rivꦬals following Honda’s latest power unit upgrade, though Verstappen feels both Ferrari and Mercedes remain the engine benchmark.

“It’s difficult🅘 🐻to say as they always run more downforce,” Verstappen said.

“I think they are still ahead. Whatever Ferrari is doing at the moment, I don’t know, they are it looks like miles ah🦩♛ead but I don’t know if that’s just pure engine power.

“Drivability has always been very positive, I think all the engines now have pretty good🍒 drivability. Pretty much the same.”

The Dutchman also hopes Red Bull have suc🦂cessfully managed 🏅to iron out launch issues which have resulted in Verstappen bogging down at the start of a number of races this season.

“We always tr🥀y to do the best we can as a team, within Red Bull and of course Honda, we work well together෴ to get better at it,” he explained.

“It’s something we know we ꦛhave to improve. It’s also not an easy fix, at the moment…but… it’s not always been bad.

“We♉’ve had a few starts which haven’t been ideal and they have been hi🍃ghlighted but sometimes you have had starts which are good enough.

“I don’t put too much pressure on it. We know we have to i꧟mprove, but if you start stressing about it, it will only work in reverse.”