Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes you'd be foolish to rule Lewis Hamilton out of winning the 2016 championship at this stage of the season, despite Nico Rosberg's current form and 33-point advantage in the standings.
Hamilton has suffered several setbacks this season, many of which have been out of his control, such as contact and reliability, but others have been of his doing, like his bad starts, the latest of which saw him drop from second to eighth in Japan before recovering to finish third.
His Mercedes team-mate Rosberg won that race, extending his championship lead to 33 points, and whilst Horner knows Rosberg is in a very strong position, he believes Hamilton can come back and reclaim the lead within the four remaining races.
"I think in any sport you see sportsmen…they get on a crest of a wave and everything falls right for them," he is quoted as saying by F1i.. "It’s going Nico’s way at the moment.
"Lewis has had quite a few tough weekends this year but he’ll brush himself down for sure and he can fight back. He only needs that sniff of something, you know, a DNF for Nico and a win for Lewis and he’s right back in the game again. Things can change so very quickly.
"We saw it from Kimi when he stole the championship from under Lewis and Fernando [Alonso]’s noses 10 years ago or whatever it was. There’s still 100 points available in this championship and I would be a foolish person to rule him out at this stage."
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