Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has insisted that struggling Lewis Hamilton will ‘become a factor’ this season despite his ailing fortunes with Mercedes. The result was staggering when compared to last year, when superstar Hamilton battled with Verstappen – and lost out – during their thrilling world title charge. During qualifying, Hamilton squeezed through into Q2 by just 0.004s – and only made up a further place on the grid in the race after Esteban Ocon’s penalty. ‘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,’ he added.

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