F1 driveshaft issue puts Max Verstappen ‘a little bit’ on back foot at Imola
Max Verstappen admits his stoppage in second practice has put Red Bꦚull “a little bit” on the back foot at Formula 1’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The Dutchman was considered the favourite by many entering the second round of the season at Imola following his narrow defeat to Lewis Ham❀ilton in Bahrain, but his weekend suffered a set-back when his RB16B ground to a halt by the pit exit with a mechanical issue early on in FP2.
Verstappen - who retired from all 💮three events in Italy last year - initially reported that “something snapped at the rear” of his car after running wide over the kerbs at the final corner, causing him to lose drive altoge🍒ther.
“I like Italy, the food is good, I enjoy being here - just the driving part so far hasn’t been the luckiest,” Verstappen said after FP2. “I had a driv♑eshaft issue so I had to stop the car.”
Asked i♓f the issue had put Red Bull on the back foot with Mercedes finishing 1-2 in the timesheets in both sessions, Verstappen replied: "A little bit but you know what you have to do anyway, so it should be alright.
“Of course it’s a bit difficult to say now for the second session, how we would have been. But nothing shocking. So we just need t๊o see what we can do better tomorrow in terms of🐽 balance. But of course first we have to make sure that nothing breaks.”
Red Bull team principal ♒Christian Horner said the team will seek to get to the bottom of the failure before on-track action resumes on Saturday✅.
“It looks like the drives🍒haft has given way unfortunately, so we’re just trying to find out exactly what’s caused that and why that happened,” he explained.
“Unfortunately the car went on a bit of a trip around Imola town after they collected it before we got🎃 it back into the pits, which didn’t allow us to get i꧙t replaced.
“It’s obviously on a Friday gearbox as well and w🍒e’ll be inspecting all the parts in time for tomo💖rrow.
“We’ve got to take the bits apart to have a look. But the kerbs are pretty aggressive here so we just ꧒need to understand what’s caused it.”
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