Verstappen surprisingly calm after dramatic DNF in Monaco: 'We're not in a title battle anyway'

Verstappen started the Grand Prix from the front row alongside pole sitter Kimi Antonelli. After a strong qualifying, at least a podium seemed possible. However, the Dutchman could only limp off the line after the lights went out in Monte Carlo, and fell down to last place.

"Yeah, formation lap already felt a bit off, but then on the pre start it was completely off," Verstappen explained to, among others, GPblog. "Normally you find your RPM target, but it was not going at all. It was just shooting up and down a lot, a bit weird."

When the race actually began, the engine cut out almost immediately. "And then, yeah, as soon as I dropped the clutch, that was it. The engine bogged down completely, and after that, the noise that I heard from the engine, once I got some power back out of turn one, was very bad, so I immediately just lifted off and brought it home."

TV footage showed how Verstappen virtually stalled on the grid as the rest of the field passed him. The Dutchman managed to steer his car to the left side of the track, preventing a bigger incident. "I had no power, so I basically steered left with the speed I still had and the friction from the tires," he said. "I mean, I had no power, right? So I was steering left with the friction of the wheels and that speed. I was just praying that everyone would go right, but everyone luckily reacted very well."

The disappointment afterwards is significant, although Verstappen is mainly trying to focus on the cause of the problem. "Yeah, we had a really good weekend up until the race. Of course, everyone is very disappointed and not to be on the podium." According to Verstappen, there’s little point in looking ahead until Red Bull knows exactly what went wrong. "There's not a lot of like turning around. It's just we need to make sure that, of course, we've finish the races. But we first need to understand what went wrong today."

The four-time world champion admits that the DNF is not as painful as it would be if he were fighting for the championship. "If I would be leading the championship, then of course it's a very, very painful one. Like this, less painful, but it's still really annoying and disappointing for everyone. We know, of course, everyone wants to finish every single race, but yeah, like this, I just hope that we understand quickly what it is and that we can fix it."

Shortly before that, Verstappen had already voiced his frustration over the team radio. "Yep nice, completely **** guys, what the **** man?" he said. Then, over the team radio, Gianpiero Lambiase told the four-time world champion to bring his car back into the pit lane.

That meant an abrupt end to a weekend that had looked very promising. Verstappen had still complained about the performance of his RB22 after FP3, but Red Bull managed to make a big step towards qualifying. The Dutchman ultimately secured a spot on the front row and said on Saturday that he would have signed for that beforehand.

Follow the Monaco Grand Prix with GPblog's liveblog here!