Christian Horner has rejected Toto Wolff's "tactical foul" comments about the Max Verstappen/Lewis Hamilton clash that took both title protagonists out of the Italian Grand Prix. With the two drivers eliminated in the incident on Lap 26 at Monza, it's arguably beneficial for Verstappen, given that Red Bull expected to lose ground to Mercedes at a track that doesn't suit the RB16B as well as others. Verstappen's championship lead has grown to five points, after he finished second in the Sprint Qualifying race, and Mercedes boss Wolff insinuated that Verstappen had employed a "tactical foul" when he attempted to pass Hamilton through the first chicane. Wolff's comments didn't impress Red Bull counterpart Horner, who said that Verstappen's thought process was firmly on fair racing. "I don't think he's thinking that, going through Turn 1 [and] into Turn 2, he's thinking, 'How can I pass the car ahead?'" Horner told media, including RacingNews365.com , after the race. "I think that I'd be disappointed if Toto suggested that. "It's frustrating because we had a good car, we wanted to beat them on track. We had a difficult pit-stop and we had an issue at the stop, so he was held much longer than he should be, so he should have never been anywhere near Lewis. "Then Lewis had an issue, because he should have been well clear of Max. And so that put the two of them in a situation where they're both racing each other. And, of course, they're going to go for it!" While Verstappen was given a three-place grid penalty for the clash, which he will serve at the Russian Grand Prix in two weeks' time, Horner felt that the blame could be shared equally between the two drivers. "I think you can look at it and you're going to objectively say... you can argue that one should have gone straight, you can argue that the other should have given more space," he said. "I think when you cannot apportion blame, you'd have to say it's 50/50. I think from our perspective, from my perspective, it's a racing incident."
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