Max Verstappen has sensationally slammed the organisers of the Virtual Le Mans 24 Hours, after the race became ridiculed by connection issues and even suffered a “security breach”.
The Dutchman was competing in the biggest sim-racing event in the #1 Team Redline car, alongside team-mates Jeffrey Rietveld, Luke Browning, and Diogo Pinto.
Verstappen’s team were competing in the highest category of the race and were incredibly leading it from the early stages, before maintaining their position at the front for the following seven hours.
They’d built a strong advantage over second place before they suffered their first disconnection from the race, which dropped them to 17th and a lap down by the time they managed to re-join the server.
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It wasn’t long until they suffered yet another disconnect, by at which point Verstappen opted to retire from the race, after hailing it as a “clown show”.
“They can’t even control their own game,” Verstappen told his Twitch stream.
“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?
“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.”
Fans have been quick to criticise the organisers choice of sim to run the race on, with those watching stating that iRacing would be better than RFactor 2.
Verstappen presumably agrees; however, if his comments are anything to go by then the Dutchman will likely stick to real-life racing in the future.
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The race endured two red flag stoppages prior to Verstappen’s issues, with the organisers having blamed a “suspected security breach” for the lengthy stoppages.
“Unfortunately the two servers that have been used for the 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual have had a suspected security breach,” read a statement from the organisers.
“We are now taking the actions necessary to increase security and will aim to re-start the race as soon as possible.”