Whilst Lewis Hamilton spent his weekend away from Formula 1 on a yacht in Ibiza, reigning World Champion Max Verstappen opted to take part in a sim racing event, something he may now wish he hadn’t done.
The Dutchman is a keen sim racer and has participated in some of the biggest virtual races, most notably the Le Mans 24 Hours Virtual.
Last weekend the Red Bull driver competed in the Golden Toast Grand Prix, a three-hour virtual race at Spa-Francorchamps in GT3 cars.
As always, Verstappen was competing for Team Redline, with the 25-year-old having even claimed pole position.
Want to work in Formula 1? Browse the latest F1 job vacancies
However, he was involved in an incident mid-race, where he was hit from behind whilst braking, causing him to collide with his own team-mate.
Verstappen and his Team Redline partner span out as a result, something which caused the Dutchman to see red.
He quickly rejoined the race and caught the driver who hit him, by completely cutting across Les Combes.
This put him right on the gearbox of the driver who hit him as they approached Bruxelles, where the two-time World Champion decided not to brake.
He ploughed straight into the driver, causing the pair to skid off the track and collide heavily with the barrier.
Unsurprisingly, Verstappen was disqualified from the event held on iRacing.
The F1 star has come under huge amounts of criticism following the chaotic incident, most notably by ex-British Touring Car driver Bradley Philpot.
Philpot took to social media to take a dig at the Dutch driver.
“Max has really matured as a driver,” sarcastically wrote Philpot on Twitter.
Some fans replied by insisting that Verstappen’s behaviour in the virtual world shouldn’t be compared to F1, something Philpot described as “hilarious”.
READ: New love interest? Lewis Hamilton photographed with two women in Ibiza
“Some of the replies I’ve had to this clip of M*x deliberately crashing into someone in @iRacing are hilarious,” he added.
“For all the ‘it’s only a video game’ responses – you’re (sort of) right. It’s a professionally organised sim racing competition that drivers have prepared for weeks for. But why do you think that makes it better? Why does Max care enough to retaliate if it’s ‘just a game’ to him?
“That actually makes it worse. He shouldn’t care but he clearly does.”