Max Verstappen and first position go hand in hand in 2023 so a fifth place finish in FP2 has left plenty of pundits baffled, including the Dutchman himself.
The double world champion did get caught in traffic on his flying lap, but still the Dutchman was not lighting up the timing screens like he is used to doing this campaign.
“We’ve been trying a few different wing levels and I think we still need to analyse a bit what way to go,” Verstappen said in the debrief. “It’s sometimes a bit of a tricky thing around Monza.”
“From my side, it probably could have been a little bit better, so still fine-tuning a bit the low-speed to the high-speed, but I’m quite confident of course that we’ll get there. Also, I was a bit interrupted in FP2 to get a proper read on a few things, [so there’s] still a bit of work to do.”
Verstappen heads into the weekend on the verge of history as he aims to become the first man to clinch 10 victories in a row. The odds are firmly in his favor as Monza is the quickest circuit on the calendar and the Red Bulls have proven to be invincible in the top speeds during the course of this season.