Championship leader Max Verstappen endured a rare difficult weekend in Italy where his Red Bull was simply not on the same level of performance as McLaren, Mercedes or Ferrari.
For only the second time in 2024, Verstappen finished a grand prix outside of the top five positions. It was his worst finish since the Monaco Grand Prix – another weekend where Red Bull struggled for pace, in which he also finished in sixth.
Verstappen’s Italian Grand Prix radio
Jump to:
“I got a penalty for that”
“Car behind now Checo”
“My front-left doesn’t look ‘amazing’”
“Could be racing Ocon”
“If we push more I’m going to kill my tyre”
“Can I have my PU performance back?”
“The battery is not charging”
“Can the people in the background please be awake?”
“This power is very slow”
“Sorry we couldn’t give you a better car”
“I got a penalty for that”
Starting from seventh on the grid on hard tyres among a sea of rivals on mediums, Verstappen had an eventful opening lap. He ran behind Lewis Hamilton at the start, then overtook the other Mercedes of George Russell through Curva Grande, who had run off at the first corner and been forced to take the escape road.
Entering the Roggia chicane, Verstappen took the outside line and found himself squeezed by Hamilton under braking. As he rounded the corner, he was then clipped by Russell on his right-rear, which broke the endplate off Russell’s front wing.
| Lap: 1/53 VER: 1’30.354 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Verstappen runs close to Hamilton into Roggia Lewis didn’t leave a car’s width… |
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| Lambiase | Yep, that’s clear, Max. We’ve seen it. Thank you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | I mean, I got a penalty for that, so… | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | Mode ‘six’. Mode ‘six’. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Verstappen is clipped by Russell out of Roggia Check my left rear tyre, because I touched something a bit. |
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| Lambiase | Yeah, that’s okay for now, Max. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 2/53 VER: 1’26.170 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | For info, Max, DRS is enabled. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lambiase | So race update, Max: Piastri, Leclerc, Norris, Sainz, Hamilton. Car behind [Russell] has front wing damage. You know the plan now, don’t you? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Verstappen | Yep. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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“Car behind now Checo”
Sitting in sixth, the highest-place runner on hard tyres, Verstappen knew he would have to run further into the race before stopping than the five cars…
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