Verstappen's late scare revealed after “urgent” radio message

The Red Bull driver set a new record for the most consecutive wins in F1 after passing Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz during an action-packed Italian Grand Prix at Monza. 

But Verstappen’s run to a 10th straight F1 victory in a row was not all plain-sailing, with the Dutchman revealing he had to manage a problem with his car. 

The two-time world champion said “everything felt good” for most of Sunday’s race but admitted he “had to nurse a little issue at the end.”

“But we had, luckily, of course, a gap behind so I could easily back off,” Verstappen added. 

Verstappen was asked to “increase the gap to Gasly” on multiple occasions by race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase in what was described as being “quite an urgent request.”

However, the issue ultimately did not hamper the Dutchman’s bid to make F1 history. 

Verstappen said he worked to force Sainz into the mistake that ultimately cost the Spaniard the lead on lap 15 when he locked his brakes into the first chicane. 

“We had good pace,” he explained. “I think we were good on the tyres, but they had a lot of top speed.

“It was so hard to get close and get a move on into turn one, so I had to force him into a mistake. 

“Luckily it came at some point where he locked up and then I had better traction out of turn two and basically from there once we could again do our own race.

“I was just trying to stay patient. That was still a very long race. I could see they were struggling a lot with a rear tyre, so I just had to pick my moment.”