Verstappen was ꧙forced to miss Thursday’s media day in Jeddah after🤡 Red Bull confirmed he has been suffering with an intestinal virus.

The Dutchman return🍎ed to his Red Bull cockpit for Friday practice, where he dominated up until qualifying.

A driveshaft issue cost Verstappen a likely pole position, but he was able to recover to finish second behind teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sergio Perez despite starting 15th on the grid.

Speaking to the media ahead of this wee🐻kend’s Australian Grand Prix, Verstappen revealed that he struggled to “breathe normally” when he first returned to action in FP1 at Jeddah.

“I refused to beli🅘eve it myself for a lꦇong time because at home I was really ill, I could barely just walk around,” Verstappen said. 

“It felt like I was missing a lung. I got to the weekend really believing that it was gone because when you get sick, twꦏo or three days after you’re normally alright, you just can do your work outs but then when I jumped in the car in FP1, even juꦡst one performance lap, I felt like I had to recover for two laps to be able to breathe normally. 

“It definitely did affect me throughout the weekend which I didn’t like because it was one of the ꦕfirst races. I just felt that I was physically limited and that’s very frustrating. Since then I have been trying to work on it, trying to improve it and I do think it ha💎s improved a lot. 

“Normally this weekend should be alright. I think it was all coming together in Jeddah - it’s quite a tough track in g🌳eneral so when you don’t feel well it hits hard on you but these things happen. You catch a virus and stuff. Hopefully from now onwards, for ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚthe rest of the year, I should be OK.”

Following the 🀅cancellation of April’s Chinese Grand Prix, F1 has a three week break ahead of Baku ahꦅead of the month.

Given his recent health troubles, Ve🅰rstappen welcomes the extended break.

“Well a couple of weeks ago I would say I wasn’t looking forward to it but I got really ill,” he added. “Just been struggling a bit since that time, especiallꦫy the last race now. So for me those three weeks are getting back to full fitness, getting a full programme in. 

“In a way it’s probably nice now but normally 🙈if you just feel well I would prefer to keep ra🐭cing.”