Max Verstappen’s Rare Q1 Exits: Every Time He was Among the First to be Eliminated

Monza, 2015

The very first time that Verstappen failed to move on from Q1 of Qualifying was during the Italian Grand Prix of 2015. Both he and his Torro Rosso (now VCARB) teammate at the time, Daniel Ricciardo, were facing technical problems with their cars and left their garages quite late into Q1. While Ricciardo was able to start a push lap and ultimately proceed to Q2, the clock had run out on Verstappen and he did not set a lap time during the session. 

To make matters worse, the engine cover of Verstappen’s car flew off as he went through the first chicane of the track during the Qualifying session. In making the necessary repairs to his car overnight, he picked up a 20-place grid penalty, and was served a 10-second drive-through penalty to be served on the first three laps of Sunday’s race for his car being released from the garage in an unsafe state. Verstappen finished the race in 12th place.

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Monaco, 2016

In just his second race after being promoted from Torro Rosso to Red Bull Racing, Verstappen found himself out in Q1 as a crash at the 2016 Monaco Grand Prix took him out of Qualifying early. Verstappen clipped a wheel on the entry of the Swimming Pool Chicane, which caused him to lose control of his car, and landed him nose-first in the wall. It was his second crash of the weekend, following an almost identical incident during FP3.

Thankfully he was uninjured, but the collision did leave the survival cell of his car in need of replacement. And because his mechanics had to work on the car during parc ferme, Verstappen started the rainy Monaco race from the pitlane. While he did make some overtakes and improved his position, his weekend would end early with a third crash halfway through the grand prix. Verstappen was one of seven drivers in total who did not finish the race.

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Shanghai, 2017

Qualifying for the 2017 Chinese Grand Prix was not a fun time for Verstappen. He reported hearing something sounding off about his engine during a push lap, which had him going straight back into the pit for the mechanics to take a look at. When he went out again, the problem was not resolved, and the issue affected his car enough that he was only able to set a time fast enough for P17.

Verstappen did have enough time and fuel left for one more push lap in the session, but his third attempt to get into Q2 was unfortunately cut short when the Sauber of Antonio Giovinazzi hit the wall out of the final turn of the track, ending Q1 early. 

Yet Sunday was a completely different story. The engine gremlins in Verstappen’s car had subsided and he showed incredible pace, climbing up to P3 by the 42 of 56 laps. He finished in third place, behind Lewis Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel, putting on the first of the several epic recovery drives on this list.

Monaco, 2018

Verstappen’s car didn’t even leave the Red Bull garage during Qualifying at the 2018 Monaco Grand Prix. Bad luck struck him once again at the Swimming Pool Chicane earlier in the day, during FP3; Verstappen hit the wall coming out of it, leaving only hours for his pit crew to fix the car before Qualifying began. Unfortunately, the damage was too much, and the mechanics had still not even put a new gearbox in his car by the time Q1 started. 

Having not set a lap time in Qualifying, Verstappen started the race at the very back, in P20. He was able to make his way back into the points, finishing P9 overall, and the fastest lap time of the race at 1:14.260.

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Monza, 2019

At the 2019 Italian Grand Prix, Verstappen’s car lost power on his out-lap, and he was once again unable to set a qualifying time. The loss of power was to do with the engine modes Red Bull used during the Qualifying session, which put a high demand on the power unit. 

Nonetheless, this was not the set-back it appeared to be, as Verstappen was already due to start from the back of the grid after taking a whole slew of new power unit components and exceeding his engine part allocations. In the end, he started from P19, as Kimi Raikkonen took a pit-lane start, and had a decent recovery drive during the race itself to finish P8.

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Sochi, 2021

It is crazy to think that the last time we saw Verstappen out in Q1 was four years ago. 

It happened at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix Qualifying, during which Verstappen opted not to even set a lap time. He already went into the Sochi race weekend carrying a three-place grid penalty for a collision with Hamilton during the previous race, Italian Grand Prix, but was doomed to start from the back after changing all six components of his power unit and once again exceeding several engine part allocations. 

Not setting a time meant that he was able to conserve a few extra sets of tires for the race, which in the end allowed him to climb from P20 back up to P2 just behind Hamilton, putting down one of the greatest recovery drives in the sport’s history.

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São Paulo, 2025

This was the one time Verstappen was genuinely too slow. While the Red Bull car looked to be improving in performance over the last portion of the 2025 season, the São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil proved to be a bigger challenge than expected. After finishing just off of the podium in P4 during that weekend’s sprint race, Verstappen’s team made changes to the car that only seemed to worsen the lack of pace he had. Despite two attempts at a push lap, Verstappen was unable to find the time he needed to advance, and ultimately qualified in P16. 

With nothing to lose, Red Bull made several changes to his car under parc fermé, and Verstappen started the grand prix on Sunday from the pit lane. This was exactly what he needed, as the pace the car was lacking on Saturday suddenly returned. Despite an untimely puncture that forced him to take an extra pit stop early in the race, Verstappen had one of the greatest recovery drives of his career, climbing not just into the points but onto the podium with a massive P3 finish. Ahead of him were Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli and race winner Lando Norris.

Looking back at these Q1 eliminations only shows how remarkably consistent Verstappen is. This is especially clear as most of his early exits–four of seven–were entirely out of his control, caused by mechanical problems or electrical failures. He makes next to no mistakes, with only two of his early eliminations–both at Monaco–resulting from driver error. And the fact that just once in 230 races he was genuinely off the pace speaks to his unmatched ability to extract the most out of his car time and time again, making him one of the greatest drivers in the sport.

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Starting from the back - honorable mentions:

While Verstappen has only been eliminated in Q1 seven times, he has started from the back of the grid at a handful of more races. These are the times he had good enough pace but was forced to line up further behind for other reasons. 

Montreal, 2015

Despite qualifying in P12, Verstappen started the 2015 Canadian Grand Prix from P19 after taking a series of penalties for causing a collision with the Lotus of Romain Grosjean at the previous race in Monaco, and for exceeding his engine part allocations for the year.

Spa-Francorchamps, 2015

Qualifying for the 2015 Belgian Grand Prix was a challenge for Verstappen. While he set a time fast enough to advance into Q2, Verstappen reported having no power during Q1. Given the issues with his engine, he didn’t set a lap time during the second portion of Qualifying, ending his session with a P15. He took a grid penalty to make repairs to the power unit overnight, and started the race from P18.

Suzuka, 2015

The 2015 Japanese Grand Prix saw Verstappen once again set a time fast enough to get him into Q2, only to be prevented from going further by technical difficulties. This time, his car suddenly lost power on the hairpin of the Suzuka track, putting Q1 to an early end for everyone. Verstappen did not go out again during the session. He was given a three-place grid penalty because he had come to a stop in an unsafe area of the track, and lined up in P18 for the race.

Austin, 2017

Verstappen made it comfortably through all three rounds of Qualifying and was set to start from P6 for the 2017 United States Grand Prix. Yet taking his sixth internal combustion engine and MGU-H, when drivers were only allowed four on each for the year, came with a massive penalty that ultimately saw him starting all the way back from P16. 

Austin, 2018

With five minutes to go in Q1 of the 2018 United States Grand Prix Qualifying, Verstappen was sitting in P5 when he drove over a sausage kerb, sustaining damage to his gearbox that took him out of the session. Despite moving on to Q2, Verstappen did not set any further lap times, qualifying in P15. He would ultimately start in P18 after a grid penalty for taking on a new gearbox under parc ferme.

São Paulo, 2024

Verstappen did start in P17 during the 2024 São Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil, but he wasn’t eliminated in Q1. He qualified in P12 overall, but had to take a five-place grid penalty for using a sixth internal combustion engine, thus exceeding power unit allocation limit for that year.

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Cover image via Red Bull Media Pool

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