Remarkably, Verstapp🌠en has never finished in the top three during his previous visits to Monza since 2015.

He got close in 2018, finishing third but was handed a five-sec꧙ond time penalty for causing a collision with Valtteri Bottas, dro🔯pping him to fifth.

The statis💯tic also applies to Red Bull, with the team not finishing on the podium since their 1-3 fini༒sh in 2013 with Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber.

In the V6 hybrid era, Monza has been a difficult track for R꧟ed Bull given that it has often lacked engine power, particularly during their time with Renault.

Things have changed since moving to Honda power with the Japanese manu♐facturer’s power unit - now labelled as Red B🔯ull Powertrains - is arguably the class of the field.

Verstappen was dominant at Spa-Francorchamps - a low downforce circuit like Monza - so many expect Red Bull to run away wi💛th the win this weekend.

Speaking about his poor record at Monza, Verstappen said: “I kn𒁃ow why! We’ve always been slow on the straights. So you always know when you get here that’s its never♛ going to be a good weekend. 

“Besides that, a few technical issues here, and we always had to take engine penalties around here as well, so naturally, it’s never going to be amazing. But now with th🐭e straight-line speed, it can be a completeᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚly different weekend for us.”

Despite no💎t often having the fastest car, Verstappen has built up an astonishing points lea💮d in the championship.

He’s 109 points clear of Sergio P🤪erez and Charles Leclerc, meaning he’s on cour♑se to win his second title at either Singapore or Japan.

Even with his huge points lead, Versꦡtappen insists there’s still a lot of “s🗹tress” to get everything right.

“There’s alw𓂃ays stress, well there’s always positive stress, I would say,” he add𒉰ed. “Because we always want to get the most out of the car and the package in general.

“In that sense, it’s similar, and it also doesn’t really matter if you are leading the championship or not, it d🍌epends what you are fighting for. You always arrive at the weekend wanting to the do the best you can, so naturally you are a bit stressed wanting to make sure everything works well.”