Max Verstappen's Monaco Grand Prix ended before it really began, the four time World Champion retiring on his opening lap after failing to get off the line cleanly at the start. He had qualified second behind Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli, putting him in position for a strong result at a circuit where he has won twice before, only for the weekend to unravel in the moments before the race even reached its first corner.
Verstappen said the engine had been responding very strangely through the formation lap and the pre-start sequence, with the RPM target failing to engage normally. When he dropped the clutch at the start, the engine dropped dead completely, and only battery power moved the car forward in the opening seconds. Power eventually returned, but the engine sounded troubled enough that his Red Bull team had him bring the car back slowly rather than push on and risk further damage.
"After such a nice weekend for us, you'd at least hope to be on the podium," Verstappen said, reflecting on a weekend that had otherwise gone well for Red Bull through practice and qualifying. He added that leaving Monaco with zero points was probably even more painful precisely because the car and the team had looked so competitive right up until the parade lap.
The retirement was Verstappen's second of the season, following an earlier DNF in China, and a frustrating counterpoint to a Red Bull weekend that had shown real pace elsewhere on the grid. For a driver with two Monaco wins already on his record and a fourth world title behind him, walking away from the principality with nothing to show for a promising qualifying effort was a result that undercut what had otherwise been one of the team's stronger weekends of the year.