Max Verstappen didn't have a good word to say about the organisers of the Virtual Le Mans, branding the event a "clown show" after a series of technical issues sidelined him from the race while he was in the lead.
Verstappen's Team Redline entry that he shared with fellow sim racers Jeffrey Rietveld, Luke Browning and Diogo Pinto took the lead at the start and was still in control of proceedings in the early morning when a connection glitch hit his race.
By the time his connection was restored, Verstappen had tumbled down the order to P17. Unfortunately, he suffered more technical problems 90 minutes later.
The race – held on Motorsport Games’ rFactor 2 platform – had also been stopped numerous times on Saturday, with organisers suspecting a "security breach" of their servers.
It was all too much for Verstappen who - after Team Redline's request to be given back its lost laps was denied - threw in the towel on Sunday morning, frustrated and disappointed with events.
"They can't even control their own game," said the real world reigning F1 world champion.
"This is already the third time this has happened to me, getting kicked off the game while doing this race. It's also the last time I'm ever participating, because what's the point?
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"You prepare for five months to try to win this championship, you're leading the championship, you're trying to win this race that you've been preparing for for two months, and they handle it like this.
"There have been two red flags, they cancelled the rain, because maybe that's already a big influence, and people are still getting disconnected, and at one point we were hit by it, and they're just not dealing with it, because they need even more people to disconnect.
"Honestly, it's a joke. You cannot call this an event. [It’s a] clown show. That's why it's better to retire the car."
There was some consolation in the Team Redline camp with the online outfit's sister entry steered by Felix Rosenqvist, Felipe Drugovich, Luke Bennett and Chris Lulham winning the race overall.
But Virtual le Mans has likely seen the last of Max Verstappen.
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