F1 champion Max Verstappen drops savage line on Jimmy Fallon: 'I'm ver-stopping this interview'

Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen drops savage line on US comedian: 'I'm ver-stopping this interview'

Max Verstappen was not too happy with the interview

Sam Cook Digital Journalist

Sports Journalist who has been covering motorsport since 2023

Friday 8 May 2026 16:55

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Four-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen is not a big fan of interviews. And US comedian Jimmy Fallon found that out the hard way.

Fallon was at the Miami Grand Prix last weekend, and stunned F1 legend Martin Brundle with a bizarre moment involving a microphone sock on the grid.

But the Tonight Show host was also a guest of the Red Bull garage, and starred in videos with Red Bull drivers Verstappen and Isack Hadjar.

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Comedian Fallon conducted an interview with the pair which appeared on his show, great for the sport as it continues to grow its popularity in the US.

In the interview that has gone viral on social media, Fallon is pondering Verstappen's name, saying: "Max Verstappen like Ver-stopping at the store or Ver-stopping to get coffee, you know."

Verstappen, looking bemused, said: "Ver-stopping this interview," with laughs heard back in the studio of Fallon's show.

Verstappen's interview mishaps in 2026

While this was clearly a tongue-in-cheek remark from Verstappen for Fallon's show, the Dutchman hasn't been in the best of moods in general in 2026 when it's come to interviews.

At the Japanese Grand Prix, Verstappen kicked a British journalist out of his Red Bull roundtable, and refused to start the interview until the Guardian's Giles Richards had left.

At the Miami GP, he was a little more upbeat with his Red Bull team performing a bit better, but still told a beIN journalist to stop lying to fans when they had raised the fact that the competitive order could have completely changed after the five-week break from the sport.

Sky Sports F1's Ted Kravitz raised an interesting point about Verstappen during the weekend, claiming that it would be interesting to see whether or not his interview demeanour and distaste for the new 2026 regulations would change now that his Red Bull team seem to have got to the bottom of some of their problems.