Max Verstappen reveals Red Bull difficulty in Mercedes defeat: 'Wasn't our friend'

Max Verstappen has revealed that Red Bull struggled with top speed during the Italian Grand Prix, conceding that it "was not our friend" in defeat to Mercedes.

Verstappen started in fifth but quickly worked his way to the front, overtaking Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc and Pierre Gasly.

The four-time world champion briefly led early in the race after passing George Russell, only for the Mercedes driver to quickly get back past.

Kimi Antonelli, starting from 19th, made rapid progress to the front and overtook Verstappen easily, with the two Silver Arrows drivers going on to break away.

Verstappen pitted during a mid-race virtual safety car for fresh hard tyres and did well to work his way back through from seventh to third, where he finished.

It was a positive result for the 28-year-old, who had to overtake several drivers around the outside due to Red Bull's straight-line struggles.

"There were some good battles out there," said Verstappen. 

"I had to send it many times around the outside because we were just struggling a lot with deployment from turns two to four compared to our competitors.

"In general top speed wasn't our friend today so just tried to hang in there but they were just a bit too fast.

"That's why I was trying to be in that overtake mode but at one point I lost that and tried to just do my own race. Happy with P3 and to be on the podium here."