Max Verstappen says he felt like he was "missing a lung" during an illness he sustained prior to the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The Dutchman had to miss Thursday's media day of the Jeddah race weekend, and has now revealed the extent of the illness which left him "physically limited" throughout the weekend. "At home I was really ill, like I could barely just walk around and felt like I was just missing a lung," said Verstappen. "I got to the weekend, really believing that it was gone. Because normally when you get sick, like two, three days after you normally alright, you could just do your workouts. "But then when I jumped in the car in FP1, even just one performance, I felt like I had to recover for two laps to be able to breathe normally. So yeah, it definitely did affect me throughout the weekend."
Verstappen looking forward to break
Since the Jeddah weekend he has been working on getting back to full fitness, believing that he has improved since the tough outing last time out. "I've been trying to work on it, trying to improve it, and I do think that it has improved a lot. So normally this weekend should be alright," he explained. "It's quite a tough track in general and when you don't feel well, it hits hard on you." Verstappen claims he is looking forward to the unconventional three-week break in the calendar between Australia and Baku, which came up due to the cancellation of the Chinese Grand Prix earlier this year. "Well a couple of weeks ago I would say that I was not looking forward to it," he said. "So for me now this three weeks is just getting back to like full fitness getting a full programme in. "But normally if I just feel well, I think I would also prefer to keep racing. It has nothing to do with looking into the car trying to make it faster. "I think that's a natural process, but it's weird to have three weeks off, especially that early on in the season."
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