Massa clash cost Verstappen podium - Horner

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner believes Max Verstappen's contact with Felipe Massa cost his driver a podium in the Italian Grand Prix.

Verstappen started from 13th on the grid but made an excellent start to run eighth at the end of the third lap. Attempting to pass Massa for second place, Verstappen's right-front wheel touched the sidepod of the Williams, resulting in a puncture that demoted him to the back of the grid and required an extra pit stop.

With Daniel Ricciardo climbing from 16th to fourth on the same strategy Verstappen had been on, Horner feels a podium escaped the teenager.

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"Max was racing hard with Felipe," Horner said. "They made contact and he was unlucky that he picked up a puncture as a result of that. Which effectively destroyed his race. It is difficult because it is a racer's instinct to make as much progress as possible.

"Daniel had a poor start, Max had a good start, and was just behind Raikkonen, so had he made that pass and escaped cleanly with Massa he certainly would have been on the podium.

"It was a racing incident – it was unlucky, he was fighting for position and they touched and he came off worse. But starting race 13 from 13th on the grid in RB13, it almost was not looking too good for him going in! if you believe in that kind of stuff."

Speaking about Ricciardo's performance, Horner added: "I think he's showing great maturity, great pace.

"He races very well. He's riding a confidence wave at the moment so he's in a good place. He's happy, he's enjoying his job and things have fallen quite neatly for him."

Having recovered from the puncture to finish ninth, Verstappen himself was pleased with his performance despite the Massa incident.

"My race was basically finished after three laps," Verstappen said. "We were always playing catch-up. We started on the softs and then I had a puncture on that tire, so I had to do a two-stop. Was a bit of a shame. So yeah, what can you do? I think I still did quite a decent race – I was pretty happy with that."