Verstappen debriefs adventure: 'That made me more nervous than driving in F1'

During a Twitch stream with Chris Lulham, the four-time world champion briefly recapped last weekend's events at Portimao, where he and Ben Barnicoat competed in the final round of the GT World Challenge Europe season.

The Briton began: "I mean, it's definitely exciting having that many people there supporting us. And we always have fans around the year, but this was pretty crazy."

Then, it was Verstappen's turn to analyze what happened. The Dutchman said: "I had a good time, mate. Yeah, it was really fun the whole weekend. Just had a good time, you know, trying to to get back up to speed because, of course, the last time that I drove it was at the Nordschleife, which, of course, is different tires, completely different ride heights. It's quite different, to be honest."

He continued: "Yeah, I have to say the first lap when I went out was a little bit of a shock to the system. But then I really enjoyed it. Of course qualifying didn't really go to plan, let's say like that. But that meant of course that we had to yeah, fight our way forward a little bit in the race."

Verstappen explained that watching the GT cars compete from the outside makes him more nervous.

"But it was exciting. I mean, I'm always like more nervous watching the GT race than I am myself in a race car in F1. So I guess that says enough. For example, the start, it's quite nerve wracking to be honest, just sitting, watching, standing there," he concluded.

After qualifying in 15th place, Verstappen, Lulham and Barnicoat finished in ninth place.

Arthur Leclerc also discussed what it was like to battle the Dutchman in Portugal. "It’s fantastic to see a legend like him here, someone who races in Formula 1 and is a four-time F1 world champion," Leclerc said. "Of course, it’s great to share the track with him.