Max Verstappen admits after the Monza GP: He’d hoped for a tougher battle with Mercedes

The race weekend at Monza’s Royal Park was anything but easy for Max Verstappen. The Red Bull Racing star struggled all Friday with an issue that made driving difficult. In the third practice session, however, the Dutchman was once again happy with his car, which is why expectations for qualifying and the race were correspondingly high.

Yet the battle for lap times on Saturday afternoon proved sobering. The four-time champion once again voiced concerns about the rear end of his RB22 and was therefore unable to finish higher than sixth. The fact that he had to start the Grand Prix on the high-speed circuit from fifth on the grid – because Oscar Piastri received a three-place grid penalty for blocking Verstappen’s team-mate Liam Lawson in Q2 – was little consolation.

In the race, however, Verstappen showed strong form and even managed to take the lead in the early stages. His luck was short-lived, though, and Verstappen ultimately had to settle for third place behind the Mercedes duo of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell. Before the podium ceremony, he watched the duel between the team-mates from the German car manufacturer’s works team alongside the star drivers. And Verstappen joked: “I saw that and thought to myself: ‘A bit more of that, lads.’”

Earlier, Verstappen had spoken to GP legend David Coulthard about his race and enthused: “There were a few good battles out there. I had to stay on the outside several times because we had problems with power delivery between turns 2 and 4. Top speed wasn’t the best overall. I just tried to keep up, but they were simply a bit too fast.”

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