Max Verstappen reveals extent of illness as Red Bull star struggles

Max Verstappen has revealed he felt he was “missing a lung” as he explains the extent of an illness which plagued him in Saudi Arabia. The Red Bull star missed Thursday’s media duties in Jeddah after coming down with the bug.

However, he returned to the circuit on Friday and battled through the weekend despite admitting he was feeling rough. The reigning champion has now admitted he was “physically limited” by the virus and was even struggling to breathe.

The admission makes his recovery from P15 to P2 after a drive shaft issue in qualifying all the more impressive. Speaking on Thursday, he said: “I refused to believe it myself for a long time. At home I was really ill, I could barely just walk around. I felt like I was missing a lung.

“I got to the weekend really believing that it was gone because when you get sick, two or three days after you’re normally alright, you just can do your workouts. But then when I jumped in the car in FP1, even just one performance lap, I felt like I had to recover for two laps to be able to breathe normally.

“It definitely did affect me throughout the weekend which I didn’t like because it was one of the first races. I just felt that I was physically limited and that’s very frustrating.” Verstappen accepted he had recovered between the two races and was back to his best for Albert Park.

But in an ominous warning to his rivals, the 25-year-old suggested he was yet to reach full fitness despite his commanding start to the season.

He leads the world championship by just one point over his team-mate after picking up a win in Bahrain and the fastest lap in the opening two Grand Prix so far.

But the pair are a further 13 points ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to establish a comfortable early gap. He commented: “Since then I have been trying to work on it, trying to improve it and I do think it has improved a lot.

“For me now this three weeks is just for getting back to full fitness and getting a full [training] programme in. So in a way, it’s probably nice now. Normally if you feel well, I’d just prefer to keep racing.”