Verstappen retires from 24H Le Mans virtual: 'Last time I'm participating'

A lot happened during the night and morning of the virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans. For Max Verstappen, disaster struck: from a leading position, he was thrown out of the game and disconnected. He was catching up, but had fallen so far behind that Team Redline decided to withdraw the car from the race.

Verstappen retires from 24 hours of Le Mans virtual

Verstappen was leading the race by over a minute when his screen went black. After this, the car stalled in the garage for several minutes. He was able to return but had fallen far back in the rankings and after a pit stop he was down to 17th. An hour later, he had fought his way back to 14th, but just under two laps behind.

When it appeared that the team would not get the laps back despite the fact that the problems seemed to be on the server side, Team Redline decided to retire the number 1 car from the race. Following this, Verstappen vented his opinion on the game, which has been plagued by technical issues and in which several drivers experienced the same problems.

Verstappen: 'This is the last time I am participating'

The Dutchman did not hold back on the incompetence of the rFactor 2 game, in which the race was run. "This is the last time I am ever participating," he said during Team Redline's livestream on Twitch. "Because what's the point? You prepare for five months trying to win this championship, you're leading the championship, you're trying to win this race for which you prepare for two months."

The organisation then pulled its hands away from the technical problems. "Honestly it's a joke, you can't call this an event. Clown show," Verstappen continued. He then argued he would have a better chance of winning if he would go to the casino in Las Vegas.

Disappointment for Team Redline

Closing, he expressed his hope that the teammates in the number 2 car of Team Redline could win the race, but the disappointment remains. "It's just a shame for everyone in the team because we all wanted to do well here and then you get this. I think I'm going to uninstall the game. I hope everyone uninstalls the game," Verstappen said.

The game has been plagued by technical problems several times since its start on Saturday afternoon. These included an hour-long event shutdown and a security breach on the game's servers. Measures were taken to prevent more problems, but despite this, several drivers were thrown out of the game during the race.