As Pierre Gasly and AlphaTauri won the Italian Grand Prix, the senior team at Red Bull endured a race to forget at Monza.
Max Verstappen rued a terrible opening lap as hopes of catching up to the leaders evaporated by the first chicane, then the mid-race Safety Car and red flag saw the Dutchman drop down to 14th before pulling in for his second retirement of the season.
“First, we already had a bad start, when I dropped the clutch I got a lot of wheelspin, because the engine was hot, somehow,” Max revealed.
“From then onwards, we got stuck on the DRS train, so you can’t pass around here then. After the red flag, again at the start, when I accelerated I had a problem with the engine, we tried to solve it but it didn’t go away and we had to retire.
“Now we just have to forget this race and move on to next week at a new circuit we are all excited to visit.”
On Gasly’s victory though, Verstappen was very complimentary of his former teammate and colleagues at AlphaTauri.
“I’m, of course, very happy for Pierre, and, anyway, the whole weekend they were very fast,” he commented.
“Then, of course, to win the race here is, I think very emotional and a great result for them. It’s a great group of people [at AlphaTauri] and I hope they are going to enjoy this one tonight because they deserve it.”
As for teammate Alex Albon, he was involved in contact with Gasly at Turn 1 on the opening lap and the impact of that resulted in a lowly race as the Thai driver came home a distant 15th.
“Yeah, I don’t how much but we were [carrying damage],” he said, with team boss Christian Horner claiming it was costing Alex a second per lap in pace.
“I will check it out with the guys because obviously, it was a long race for us. We didn’t have any grip. We definitely had damage. I will see what the team has to say because it wasn’t a fun race.
“It was a tough weekend for us as a team. Without the circumstances, it was always going to be tough but it was not a good day for us.
“A better day for AlphaTauri so well done to them guys,” Albon added. “We will put our heads down and focus on Mugello.”
