Max Verstappen claims he knew F1 world championship fight was ‘not going to be easy’ after Charles Leclerc’s SENSATIONAL Monaco GP triumph

Max Verstappen failed to finish the Monaco Grand Prix on the podium.

Max Verstappen claims he knew F1 world championship fight was ‘not going to be easy’ after Charles Leclerc’s SENSATIONAL Monaco GP triumph

Max Verstappen [L] Charles Leclerc [R] (images via IMAGO)

Reigning F1 world champion, Max Verstappen has spoken about his thoughts on the close nature of the championship fight this season. The Dutch driver leads the championship battle by only 31 points, which is the closest it has been since 2021.

Max Verstappen has won five races this season out of a possible eight, with Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, and Lando Norris having won the other three. Leclerc’s magnificent performance saw him clench the win at the Monaco Grand Prix, which moved him to 138 points in the drivers’ championship.

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Verstappen applauded Leclerc on his win at the Monaco Grand Prix and spoke about how he was aware of the championship fight being challenging this year, unlike the last two. The Dutch driver finished P6 in Sunday’s race, his lowest finish this season.

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I knew that it was never going to be like last year, to have a season like that is quite rare. So I always knew that this year was going to be a little bit different. 
Max Verstappen spoke after the race on Sunday.

Max Verstappen won 19 out of 22 races last season demonstrating sheer dominance, with Carlos Sainz being the only non-Red Bull driver to score a victory. This season, however, Ferrari and McLaren have already won three races and are actively challenging Red Bull for the drivers and the constructors championship.

Red Bull reveals the enormous cost of Sergio Perez crash

Red Bull Advisor, Helmut Marko spoke to the media about the expenses required to fix the RB20 of Sergio Perez. The challenger got totaled in the first lap of the Monaco Grand Prix after a collision with Kevin Magnussen. This was Perez’s first DNF of the 2024 season.

Sergio Perez, Kevin Mgnussen and Helmut Marko
Sergio Perez, Kevin Mgnussen and Helmut Marko (Via: Imago)
This is costing us about two to three million and with the budget cap that is of course a big handicap. It was another crash that Magnussen was involved in. Thank God it ended well, but it was a critical situation.
Helmut Marko spoke to Sky Germany.

Sergio Perez started the race P16 on the grid after a disastrous run in Q1. On Sunday into the very first lap going in turn one, Kevin Magnussen tried to overtake Perez through a gap that was not enough which led to a crash between the two.

The collision brought out the red flags and meant that both Perez and Magnussen would be out of the race. Perez will now try to perform to the best abilities to make up for the lost points in the Monaco Grand Prix as he looks to retain his seat in Red Bull for the coming season.

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