Verstappen: "It wasn’t the easiest to get the car back to the pits"

Max Verstappen has not started the Imola GP weekend well. A red flag prevented him from completing his fast lap in the first free practice session, while his drive shaft broke early on in the second free practice session. Verstappen is starting to recognise a pattern, but isn't getting superstitious just yet

"I like Italy," Verstappen begins his recap on the site of Honda Racing. "The food is good and I enjoy being here but we don’t seem to have been that lucky with the driving here recently, so hopefully that will change", he refers to the breakdowns he has had in this country before.

Fourth place would already be a personal best for Verstappen

That bad luck is no exaggeration. Verstappen has never managed a podium finish in Formula 1 on Italian soil. His best result was a fifth place in 2018 and last season he failed to finish once in three Italian GPs. And that bad luck doesn't exclusively take place on the track, as today showed: "It wasn’t the easiest to get the car back to the pits, so I couldn’t get back out on track."

As we know Verstappen, however, he's keeping his spirits up. "I don’t think missing running in FP2 is the end of the world as we know what we need to do tomorrow. We just have to focus on ourselves and make sure we get the best out of our package."