Max Verstappen feared being hit as he reveals cause of F1 Monaco GP retirement

Max Verstappen has explained what went wrong at the start of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix and caused him to retire.

The four-time world champion stalled from second place on the grid as his Red Bull bogged down when the lights went out, resulting in him dramatically dropping to the very rear of the field on the first lap of Sunday’s 78-lap race.

Verstappen did eventually pull away but lapped very slowly before peeling into the pits to retire at the end of the opening lap.

"Already the formation lap was not going very well and then after that the pre-start was terrible," Verstappen explained to Sky Sports F1. "There was just no consistency and then the engine just dropped dead.

“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 and that was it.”

Asked by Crash.net what had happened, Verstappen added: “On the pre-start, normally you find your RPM target, but it was not going at all. It was just shooting up and down a lot. A bit weird.

“As soon as I dropped the clutch, that was it, the engine bogged down completely. After that, the noise I heard from the engine once I got some power back out of Turn 1 was very bad, so I immediately lifted off and just brought it home.”

Verstappen admitted he was worried he might be hit from behind.

“I had no power, right, so I was steering left with the friction of the wheels, and at speed, I was just prating that everyone would go right,” he said. “Everyone luckily reacted very well.”

The Dutchman said it would have been a harder retirement to take had he been fighting for the world championship.

“Of course if I was leading the championship then of course it would be a very, very painful one,” Verstappen said.

“Like this, less painful but of course it’s still disappointing and very annoying. It’s disappointing for everyone.

“We know everyone wants to finish every single race. I just hope that we understand quickly what it is and then we can fix it for the future.”

Red Bull has performed strongly at the last two races in Canada and Monaco and Verstappen is keen to see whether that will translate at the next round in Barcelona.

"It's a completely different track so it will be a good test to see if we actually really made a proper step forward or not because that's all about high speed and aero performance," he said. "So, that will be an interesting weekend.

“We’ve been quick on low-speed tracks with not too many high-speed corners. I know from what I’ve seen this year, is a bit our weak point. So I hope with the changes to the car we’ve made it will be better, but I don’t know of course how much.”