Verstappen finds Monza 'impossible' to predict: 'But that would be nice'

The four-time world champion had a Sunday to forget at his final Formula 1 Dutch Grand Prix for the foreseeable future. In tricky conditions, Verstappen made a mistake exiting the final corner and ended up in the wall. Fortunately, he was OK after the incident.

It was a rare mistake by the Dutchman, and one fans have not seen in a long time, possibly even in a decade. He told GPblog, among others: "I mean, I never really think about those things. It's just unfortunate that it happened."

Verstappen found it hard to predict how his team would do next week. "Impossible to know. I have no idea," he said.

He also set his target for the team after Red Bull Racing experienced difficulties at Zandvoort. "I mean, I just hope to try and be a bit closer in terms of pace that would be nice."

Red Bull team boss Laurent Mekies did not mince his words after last Sunday. The Frenchman said: "Performance-wise I think there is nowhere to hide. It was a very difficult weekend. It seems like we have made a bit of a step back compared to where we were before the summer break. Of course, we'll never know what the results will be the real pace of the car in the race will have been with Max, but it's fair to say that session after session it looked more difficult than it was in Budapest or in Spa or in Austria."

He added: "So, some tough work for us to do to regroup and to see if it is simply the competition that has done a better job than us at upgrading the car or if something has been limiting us more than it should have been here in Zandvoort. That will be for us the next two weeks before we fight back in Monza all together."