Max Verstappen conceded that his early retirement from the Monaco Grand Prix was “even more painful” given the potential for a good result, with the Dutchman admitting that Red Bull had been enjoying a “nice weekend” up until that point.
After qualifying in P2 behind Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli in Saturday’s Qualifying session, there was much anticipation over what Verstappen – a two-time winner in Monte Carlo – might be able to do in Sunday’s race.
However, the four-time World Champion’s afternoon was over before it started after he initially failed to get off the line. As the rest of the field flashed by him, Verstappen subsequently managed to get moving but brought the car into the pits to retire at the end of his first lap.
Speaking in the media pen after his exit from the race, Verstappen was quizzed on how frustrating the situation was given his impressive Qualifying performance one day earlier.
“After such a nice weekend for us, you’d at least hope to be on the podium,” he acknowledged. “We of course then retired basically straight away. It’s painful for everyone. There’s also no need to be super upset because I think everyone is already really disappointed about it.
“It’s just a shame for everyone. I really hoped that I could do something, or at least make it an exciting race and try to put the pressure on because I really felt good this whole weekend, and now to basically come away with zero points is probably even more painful.”
Sharing further details on the cause of his retirement, Verstappen continued: “I think already the formation lap wasn’t particularly great, but then in the pre-start the engine was responding very weird.
“Normally at one point you find your RPM target, but the engine basically was not doing that, and when I dropped the clutch it basically dropped dead.
“I only had the battery at one point that helped me go forward, and after that the engine sounded really bad as soon as I had a bit of power back, and I’m sure if I just would have gone flat-out within the lap I would have destroyed it completely so they told me to bring it back slowly.”
The result marks Verstappen’s second DNF of the season, having previously retired from the running in China due to an issue with his Red Bull RB22.
