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Horner praises Verstappen despite penalty at Monza

20:35, 05 Sep 2018

byBobby Vincent

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner praises his driver Max Verstappen despite the five-second penalty he received on Sunday.

A collision with Valtteri Bottas in the 43rd lap meant that the stewards punished the young Dutch driver with a five-second penalty which resulted in Verstappen dropping two places to fifth.

Despite this blow for Verstappen and Red Bull, which the driver was furious with, Horner believes that he did a good job throughout the race to achieve points for his team.

"After a strong start, Max was able to pass Valtteri Bottas into the chicane, then avoid the incident at Turn 2 and complete the first lap in P3," Horner told The Checkered Flag.

"He was then able to consolidate that position and keep Valtteri behind throughout the first stint. We pitted once we found a window and changed to the soft tyre and Max's race was strong enough to maintain track position to Valtteri who was always going to have the advantage at the end of the race with the fresher tyre.

"Whilst defending from the Mercedes into Turn 1 the stewards unfortunately judged that he didn't quite leave enough space resulting in a five-second penalty dropping him from a finish position of P3 to P5. Nonetheless, Max has driven the wheels off the car all afternoon and done a good job."