Verstappen's Red Bull engine 'dropped dead' at the start to end Monaco GP early

Max Verstappen’s Monaco Grand Prix ended on lap 1 after his Red Bull suffered a terminal engine failure at the start, the four-time world champion stalling on the grid and swerving to avoid the field before returning to the garage.

Verstappen had already sensed trouble before the lights went out. “Already the formation lap was not going very well and then after that the pre-start was terrible,” he said. “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.”

The retirement was a bitter blow given how competitive Red Bull had looked through the weekend. Verstappen had outpaced both Ferrari drivers in qualifying, only to be edged to pole by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli — a result that itself defied expectations on the tight Monte Carlo street circuit.

A visibly frustrated Verstappen made his feelings clear on the team radio at the moment of failure, saying: “Yep, nice. Completely *. Guys, what the * man?”

With Monaco now behind them, Verstappen is looking to the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona as a more meaningful gauge of Red Bull’s recent development work. “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.”