Max Verstappen has rued his “extremely difficult” sixth-placed finish at the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix.
Verstappen endured a difficult weekend in Monaco as he finished 11th in FP1 and 4th in FP2 in Friday’s Practice sessions, during which he complained that he was bouncing around over various bumps “like a kangaroo” in his cockpit on a “pretty difficult” day for Red Bull.
Qualifying however didn’t bring better fortunes for Verstappen as he only qualified sixth which he put down to setup and the track surface.
“In general, it drives well on the straight but has been very difficult over the curves and bumps so has not been good to drive on this kind of track. The ride of the car is not good and it has been bouncing around a lot, which makes it really tricky.”
Any hope of “miracles” which the three-time champion wished for quickly evaporated on Lap 1 after his hard to medium tyre strategy was “ruined” by a red flag, following a crash which involved his teammate – Sergio Perez and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen plus Nico Hulkenberg.
Verstappen consequently switched to the medium tyre alongside Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton during the 40-minute stoppage, whilst the top-four switched to the hard tyre which meant that everyone looked to go to the checkered flag without pitting.
Red Bull however decided to pit Verstappen on Lap 53 to put the hard tyre back on to cover off the threat of Hamilton, who had pitted a lap earlier, yet neither driver could pass fifth-placed Russell which the 26 year-old found “extremely difficult.”
Verstappen though felt that the “very boring race” has allowed him and Red Bull to learn from the data and understand “… what the weakness is in the car and if we can improve this we should get back a lot of lap time.”
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