Key to Imola success? Verstappen does sim racing once again after qualifying

11:33, 18 May

Updated: 11:45, 18 May

byKada Sarkozi

After Qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna GP, Max Verstappen did not finish racing for the day. The Dutchman put the RB21 on the front row of the grid, and he later drove in the iRacing Nürburgring Endurance race for Team Redline.

It is not the first time Verstappen is completing laps around the famous Nürburgring track. The defending Formula 1 world champion tested a GT3 car on the Nordschleife, setting a new lap record in the process.

Why did he choose the pseudonym 'Franz Hermann' for the test? "They asked me for a fake name, so I said let's make it as German as we can. Then you're not on the entry list. Otherwise people woke up at 8 am knowing that my name is on it; I knew that once I was there that people would realise. It's normal. But at least I wasn't on the entry list. So at least at 8, 9 am it was pretty calm," he told GPblog among others.

Will history repeat itself in Imola?

During the previous season, Verstappen did do some sim racing ahead of the Sunday in Imola. After Red Bull agreed with the Dutchman not to race into the night during the season, Helmut Marko explained that ahead of the 2024 Emilia-Romagna GP, Verstappen went to bed at 3 am.

On Sunday, Verstappen finished marginally ahead of Lando Norris, as less than a second separated the two drivers at the Italian circuit.

This article was written in collaboration with Estéban den Toom