Max Verstappen shellshocked as F1 star clocks he's made Emilia Romagna GP mistake

Max Verstappen put his head in his hands upon realising that his upcoming 24-hour online race falls during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend. The Red Bull star is a video game fanatic

and plans to fit his sim racing duties in and around his F1 commitments at Imola Circuit.

Verstappen, the reigning triple F1 world champion, competes on iRacing with Team Redline. And one of the highlights of the iRacing calendar is coming up this weekend: the virtual 24 hours of

Nurburgring.

Footage of Verstappen realising that the race is scheduled during the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend has circulated online. With a shocked expression, the Dutchman told one of his

team-mates: "Mate, I'm racing!"

They replied: "Yeah, you can tell them to just give you an hour. Like, 'Just hold the race for an hour, guys, I'm going to go and have a chat with the boys." To which Verstappen responded:

"No, that's not what I mean. I am racing the 24."

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Verstappen has been able to coast through Grands Prix since the start of last season, with Red Bull producing a significantly faster car than the rest of the field, and the 26-year-old

considerably quicker than team-mate Sergio Perez.

At the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in March, Verstappen won by more than 13 seconds despite staying up until 4am the previous night playing iRacing online. "I stay on a European or even UK

schedule so I go to bed at like 4am," he explained.

"I wake up late. Also, I have my own sim team so naturally just catching up with them a bit. It’s just unwinding as well, I don’t have a rig here, I’m driving on my controller.

"It’s just fun not having to think about Formula 1 and just be with people that you know. Whenever I can, I do it. I woke up this morning and had an hour spare so just logged in and had a

bit of fun."

Red Bull boss Christian Horner will hope that Verstappen's iRacing commitments don't detract from his focus at Imola this weekend. In Miami he lost out to Lando Norris who, in what has

become a rare sight, pulled away from Verstappen once he hit the front.

Norris' joy may prove to be short-lived, however, as Red Bull motorsports advisor Helmut Marko claims that the team are bringing an upgrade to Emilia Romagna which he 'expects a lot from'.

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