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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has refused to count out Lewis Hamilton this season. The Brit has endured a nightmare start to the ongoing F1 campaign, twice finishing tenth or below, with just the one podium so far.

The seven-time champion is a lowly seventh in the drivers standings and during the Imola GP on Sunday, he was lapped by Max Verstappen for the first time in five years. Despite his struggles for pace and overcoming the porpoising issue, Horner believes the sporting legend will still have a significant role to play as the season progresses.

"He obviously had a horrible weekend but he is still an eight-time world champion... seven-time! I forgot Nico Rosberg won," Horner said. "He hasn't forgotten how to drive in the last four races so at some point they will sort their issues out and he will become a factor but obviously, the young guys are doing a great job."

Addressing the moment Verstappen lapped his rival, Horner added: "I think Lewis didn't have a great weekend but we are very much focused on our race and trying to extract the maximum points. It was obviously one of those things. At that point, we were looking at the clouds, was the rain going to come in the last part of the race or not, we were more focused on that."

Post-race, a deflated Hamilton commented on one of the worst race weekends of his phenomenal career and conceded any hopes of