Verstappen ruled out of Monaco GP immediately

Max Verstappen retired from the Monaco Grand Prix on the opening lap after his Red Bull Formula 1 engine ‘broke’ already on the formation lap.

Verstappen barely moved from second on the grid when the Monaco race began, and was fortunately missed as the entire field came past him.

He was at least able to move the car slightly out of the way to the left before getting going at enough speed to bring the car all the way back into the pits to retire.

“Already the formation lap was not going very well and the pre-start was terrible and then the engine dropped dead,” Verstappen told Sky once back in the paddock

“I only got a little power after one corner and the engine sounded really awful. I couldn’t go full throttle so that was it.”

A frustrated Verstappen had told his team on the radio as he returned to the pitlane: “already on the formation lap, the engine is broken. Engine's broken.”

Verstappen’s formation lap looked normal from onboard and he completed his burnouts to the grid like normal after instruction from race engineer Gianpiero Lambiase.

When in position, he was told they needed to select the settings Mode 4 and Strat 3 for the start.

There did not seem any issue at this point and Verstappen prepared for the launch as normal but as he dropped the clutch the engine died.

“Yep, nice,” he said after the car limped into action. “Completely f***ed guys, what the f**k man?”

Verstappen then got back to what initially seemed a normal speed, but was clearly compromised and said: “Engine’s broken, guys, come on give some feedback.”

After being told to stand by, he had not received further instruction halfway round the lap, so asked: “What should I do?”

“Just bring it home,” was the response. “Box, Max.”