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Horner backs Verstappen to respond after tough first half of season

Red Bull Formula 1 chief Christian Horner has tipped Max Verstappen to bounce back after the summer break following a difficult first half of the season.

Verstappen has picked up just one podium finish through the opening 11 rounds in 2017, with his struggles being most evident in a run of seven races that included five retirements.

Blighted by a mix of car issues and on-track incidents, Verstappen is some 50 points shy of Red Bull team-mate Daniel Ricciardo in the drivers' championship and just 11 clear of Force India's Sergio Perez.

Horner is confident that Verstappen can show his true colours once again through the second half of the F1 season, starting with his defacto home race in Belgium at the end of the month.

"He'd been unbelievably lucky until [Silverstone], because he had been driving at such a high level," Horner said.

"To be taken out in Barcelona, through no fault of his own, to have had successive engine failures in Montreal and Baku, where he was in a position to certainly finish on the podium if not win the grand prix was immensely frustrating.

"But he has dealt with it incredibly well and I'm certain that after the summer break he is going to have a strong second half of the year."

Zdroj: crash.net