Max Verstappen explains Monaco Grand Prix retirement in ‘dropped dead’ verdict

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After qualifying second on the grid, Max Verstappen looked set to challenge for victory at the Monaco Grand Prix. When the lights went out, his Red Bull Racing RB22 struggled to make it off the line.

The four-time world champion, frustrated with the performance, told Sky Sports F1 that the engine “dropped dead” when he tried to challenge polesitter Kimi Antonelli for the lead of the race around Monte Carlo.

Verstappen was forced to retire before the end of lap 1 in what is a brutal result for Red Bull.

Max Verstappen retires from Monaco Grand Prix in first lap

Red Bull Racing have struggled to find their footing this season as a wide-ranging regulatory change has resulted in a major overhaul of the Formula 1 running order, and things have only gotten worse at the iconic Monaco Grand Prix with Max Verstappen’s early retirement.

When the lights went out to signal the start of the race, Verstappen, who had qualified his RB22 a season-best second on the grid, did not move. The remainder of the field peeled out around him and disappeared through the first corner before the four-time champion got moving.

He reported on the radio that “the engine is broken” as he pulled away ahead of the safety car and was told to “just bring it home” by engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

Verstappen returned to the pits and retired his RB22.

“Already the formation lap was not going very well and then, after that, the pre-start was terrible, there was no consistency, and then the engine just dropped dead,” the driver explained to Sky Sports F1 after exiting the car.

“I only got a little bit of power back after the first corner and then the engine sounded really awful. I could not go full throttle so we brought it back [to the pits] and that was it.”

As the race continued, Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Isack Hadjar began to report an issue with the car that made “first gear […] not usable.”