Felipe Massa has criticised Max Verstappen's decision making after the Toro Rosso driver's spectacular crash at the Monaco Grand Prix.

The 17-year-old found himself careering towards the barriers at the first corner of the iconic street-circuit as he tried to overtake Lotus' Romain Grosjean.

In his attempts to earn a points finish in Sunday's race, Verstappen – who was unhurt in the crash – misjudged his breaking point at Ste Devote and hit the back of Grosjean before crashing head first into the safety barriers.

"I would say what for me was pretty dangerous was the accident with Verstappen," Williams driver Massa told Crash.net.

"He's supposed to get a penalty for what he did. So he just braked behind, much later and what happened was very dangerous. 

"To be honest he was not even in a position to overtake. He was not even near to go alongside, he was behind.

"It shows that maybe experience counts in Formula One. he was lucky that he was not hurt, because he could have been very hurt by what happened.

"It was very dangerous for him."

Verstappen has scored six points from the opening six races after finishing seventh in the Malaysian Grand Prix, but he has also retired on three occasions.