Max Verstappen retires from Monaco Grand Prix on Lap One

Written by Teagan Crump

Max Verstappen started the Monaco Grand Prix from second on the grid and looked set to battle Kimi Antonelli for the win. However, disaster struck on Lap One when the four-time world champion was plagued by power unit issues and was forced to retire.

📸: F1

The start was where Verstappen seemed to struggle greatly, stalling the car and falling to the back of the grid.

When speaking to the media, Verstappen said:

“After such a nice weekend for us, you’d at least hope to be on the podium. We of course then retired basically straight away. It’s painful for everyone. There’s also no need to be super upset because I think everyone is already really disappointed about it.

“It’s just a shame for everyone. I really hoped that I could do something, or at least make it an exciting race and try to put the pressure on because I really felt good this whole weekend, and now to basically come away with zero points is probably even more painful.”

He then went on to add:

“Normally at one point you find your RPM target, but the engine basically was not doing that, and when I dropped the clutch it basically dropped dead.

“I only had the battery at one point that helped me go forward, and after that the engine sounded really bad as soon as I had a bit of power back, and I’m sure if I just would have gone flat-out within the lap I would have destroyed it completely so they told me to bring it back slowly.”

Max Verstappen was the first retirement of the Monaco Grand Prix, his second retirement of the 2026 season.