17 or not, Max Verstappen stood his ground at today's press conference, slapping down criticism from Felipe Massa.

Whilst often among the first to criticise others, at times Felipe Massa appears to forget he has history of his own. Indeed, as he talked and giggled with Lewis Hamilton throughout today's press conference, it would be easy to forget the season long feud the pair enjoyed a few years back.

In the wake of Max Verstappen's crash at Monaco - an accident that marred what had been a superb weekend for the youngster and earned him a grid penalty for this weekend's race - Massa was among the first to criticise the youngster.

Asked to clarify his comments today, the Brazilian claimed he believed it was right that the Toro Rosso driver be penalised for the Monaco incident, and that young drivers in their first season need to be watched carefully by the FIA.

"I think he needed to be penalised because what he did was wrong," said the Williams driver. "I think when you are in your first year, seventeen years old and you do something like that and you are not penalised it is completely wrong.

"The FIA needs to be strong in a proper way, which is what they did. I don't change my mind," he added "That is what I believe. We need to follow the rules, I thought what he did was wrong."

Despite his years, Max was having none of it.

"Everyone can have his opinion," he fired back. "But look at my data, I didn't brake later. I braked later in the race before that, and that lap was the same as the lap before.

"I got my penalty but am focusing on Canada now," he added, before firmly twisting the knife. "Maybe we should review the race from last year and see what happened there..." he said, a crystal clear reference to the accident in 2014.

A year ago, Massa attempted to overtake Sergio Perez going into T1 on the final lap of the race. Massa's front right tyre collided with the back of the Force India which caused them both to crash into the barriers at high speed and resulted in the deployment of the safety car for the final moments of the race. While both drivers were referred to the stewards, it was Perez who was handed a 5-place grid penalty for Austria, though many believed Massa was equally to blame.

It was verbal, but today Massa became the latest to receive a Verstappen-slappen.

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READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by JB, 06/06/2015 15:54

"Mass's days are long over in F1.
He will never be a world champion.
So stop the envy Massa and go home play with your kid."

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2. Posted by Joop deBruin, 05/06/2015 16:14

"I'll just say that I liked mASSa before he took the blow to his head. But since, his mouth just never shuts up, so I've flipped 180 degrees on him. I'm not joking about his accident either, I truly believe that it somehow changed his attitude, and not for the better."

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3. Posted by Jerome, 05/06/2015 11:43

"Felipe Massa in close cooperation with Lewis Hamilton behaved very immature and not very polite during a big part of the drivers press conference. They looked like schoolboys. Not paying attention and chatting among themselves they also displayed contempt for their fellow competitors. It is very clear that Max Verstappens talent makes them nervous while on the other hand Verstappen did his best to stay his ground. If Massa and some of his fellow drivers think that they will be able to discourage Verstappen by their psychological warfare, they are utterly mistaken. For that is the only reason why Massa and others give their complaining comments while there is no need for it. Verstappen will not back down and he will not be intimidated. "

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4. Posted by Will Fly, 05/06/2015 9:20

"If you took what Massa said and applied it to Maldonado and Grosjean they shouldn't even be in F1 now, I know most people still think Maldonado shouldn't but generally Grosjean has matured into a safe and talented driver. Everyone has had big accidents, just look at Webber/Vettel, and don't even go there with Schumi who's had (and caused) more than his fair share of accidents generally without even a slapped wrist. Give the kid a chance, if we penalise every brave (not stupid) overtake that goes wrong we'll completely stifle new talent which is coming into F1 and make it even more boring. Maybe it's time for Massa to admit he's passed it and he should hang up his gloves and retire. Massa has done nothing really for years since the injury to his head. time to move on."

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5. Posted by Darvi, 05/06/2015 7:03

"I don't know why Massa felt he needed to get involved, it wasn't that many seasons ago that he was hitting people on a regular basis. It is the Stewards job to issue reprimands which they have donw, having looked at the data and on-board video from both drivers.

I'm not a Massa or Verstappen fan, and I'm not in favour of drivers with so little experience coming into F1, but I've been very impressed with Verstappen's progress to date, let's not beat up on a rookie having a great first season."

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6. Posted by testa rossa, 05/06/2015 6:41

"Didn't Massa crash in Hamilton at Monaco some time back . The pot and kettle LOL"

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7. Posted by Jeremysmith, 05/06/2015 3:01

"Both Felipe and Jenson don't need to make comments about the race craft of Max .
Max is convinced that Romain on that lap braked eilier..
That's good enough for me a future champion pushing hard ..

It's racing after all ...

Jeremy"

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8. Posted by Yeyox02, 05/06/2015 1:27

"It is not worth trying to reazon with teens. They believe that this world belongs to them."

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9. Posted by HappyHippyBiker, 04/06/2015 21:30

"I'd still like to see both cars telemetry for that corner on that lap and the lap before"

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10. Posted by scf1fan, 04/06/2015 19:51

"Unless the drivers were directly involved in the incident in question, or have some very specific or unique insight for some reason; they'd probably all be better off not getting into the personal and specific details. Let the rules guy's defend the rules (good or bad) and the commentary guy's do the commentary . . . the drivers should drive! (For my $.02 worth anyway.)"

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Massa gets a verbal Verstappen-slappen

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