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Max Verstappen and Team Redline were in action on Sunday during an online charity event for the storm-stricken Italian region of Emilia-Romagna. It did not turn into a serious virtual Grand Prix, but there was plenty of entertainment, chaos, and hilarity.
- Four races were run during the online event, each with a practice session beforehand. In each race, participants drove a different type of car: Formula 3 cars were featured, but there were also races in the Mazda MX-5, Formula Ford 1600 and the Toyota GR86.
Verstappen triumphed in the first race, in which the concentration of the competitors was still high. However, after the F3 cars were switched to other cars, which all the drivers were relatively inexperienced with. Verstappen was allowed to start from pole in the second race, but from then on things took an unexpected turn.
Verstappen forced to start at the back
A poll was held in the chat asking who viewers wanted to see start at the back in the next race. You can guess the outcome: with a whopping 85 per cent of the votes, Verstappen was relegated to the last row of the grid. During the second race, however, chaos broke out and the Dutchman did not manage to escape it either. Nevertheless, he managed to fight his way back into the top ten, while Red Bull junior Ayumu Iwasa won the race.
Ahead of the third race, it became clear that Lando Norris would also compete, although this was not initially planned. The McLaren driver was streaming the event via his own, widely viewed Twitch channel, but decided halfway through to join as well. As Norris had relatively little experience with iRacing, the young Briton was given a false start in race three.
False start Norris
This caused a hilarious moment where all the drivers on the grid were waiting for the start signal, while Norris entered the straight at full speed. As a result, he started the race with a lead, but race number three also ended in chaos all round. In the process, Verstappen and Norris looked for each other to end up next to the track together yet again. Jack Doohan won the third race.
In the fourth and final race, Verstappen again started from pole position and initially held on to it, but things went wrong in race number four as well. In a battle for the lead with Chris Lulham and Sebastian Job, it was Lulham who won, while Verstappen fell back. With a different winner every race and plenty of incidents and hilarity, there was plenty to enjoy during the charity event.