Red Bull driver Verstappen narrowly edged McLaren's Lando Norris after he gapped the Briton in the first stint on mediums, but struggled much more on the hard Pirelli rubber for the majority of Imola's 63-lap race.
Verstappen explained that he couldn't keep the hard compound in the right operating window, which led to a lack of grip that he says nearly saw him crash at Turn 7's Tosa hairpin.
