The Australian, who had also gone fastest during yesterday’s opening 90-minute session with a record lap time, ended the day with an even quicker one minute 40.852 second lap in the evening.
That was over 0.556 seconds faster than Verstappen’s best.
“I’m sure it will tighten up tomorrow but I still expect we will be able to stay where we are,” said Ricciardo, who has finished second in Singapore for the past two years with the fastest race lap on both occasions.
Formula One championship leader Lewis Hamilton, who is seeking his third successive victory, was third quickest ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
The pair were fourth and sixth, respectively, in the evening.
The Briton, who seized the overall lead from Sebastian Vettel after leading Bottas to a one-two finish in Monza, is expecting a less straightforward weekend in Singapore.
The venue’s tight twists are expected to play to Ferrari and Red Bull’s strengths but while the Milton Keynes-based squad shone yesterday, their Italian rivals were more inconspicuous.
Kimi Raikkonen, seventh in the evening, ended they day as the fastest Ferrari in ninth.
Sebastian Vettel, second in the opening session, was only 11th.
“I said the Ferrari could be a problem, and now it’s Red Bull,” Mercedes non-executive chairman Niki Lauda told Sky Sports television. “Here, what I’ve seen today, Red Bull is outstanding, in the long runs they are one second quicker so they are really doing an incredible performance at the moment. For some reason Ferrari are slower, I don’t know why.”
Vettel hinted at the Ferrari’s potential speed when he briefly lit up the timing screens with the fastest first sector, but he aborted that lap after running into traffic and later nudging the wall.
He then decided to focus on long-run race simulations.
Nico Hulkenberg went an impressive fifth-fastest for Renault ahead of McLaren pair Stoffel Vandoorne and Fernando Alonso.
Sergio Perez was eighth-quickest for Force India with teammate Esteban Ocon rounding out the top 10.
McLaren and power-unit supplier Honda confirmed their split ahead of the session, ending Formula One’s long-running engine saga and allowing the spotlight to return to the on-track action.
The Woking-based team will switch to Renault power starting next year with Red Bull-owned Toro Rosso picking up the Honda supply.
Several cars skimmed the barriers as they began pushing the limits of the track. But, other than a brief virtual safety car deployed to clear away an advertising hoarding that had fallen onto the track, the session was uneventful.
Singapore secures F1 future until 2021
The Singapore Grand Prix is set to stay on the Formula One calendar until 2021, the sport and race organisers confirmed yesterday, after agreeing a four-year contract extension.
Tomorrow’s race in the city-state would otherwise have been the last.
“I’m very glad that all the parties concerned have been able to agree on commercial terms for an extension as Formula One and, I believe, Singapore have been good for each other,” Minister for Trade and Industry S Iswaran told reporters at the Marina Bay street circuit. “Over the past decade the Singapore race has introduced many innovative elements and become an iconic and highly anticipated event on the F1 calendar,” he said.
The sport’s first night race is marking its 10th anniversary this year and is one of the most popular and glamorous of Formula One’s events. Cars drive around a floodlit street circuit through the heart of Singapore while spectators are entertained by music acts. Calvin Harris, Ariana Grande and Seal are on the bill this year.
The race, which will remain 60 percent funded by the government, costs some S$150mn ($111.58mn) to put on every year but Industry Minister Iswaran said that would be going down to S$135mn a year. It has also contributed S$1.4bn in tourism receipts to Singapore over the past decade and drawn over 450,000 international visitors, including projected arrivals for this year’s race.
Formula One Chief Executive Chase Carey described the race as a “signature” event.