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Vettel 'driving even better' in 2012 - Horner

Christian Horner believes Sebastian Vettel is driving even better this year © Sutton Images

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• Drivers:
• Christian Horner
• |
• Sebastian Vettel

• Teams:
• Red Bull

Christian Horner believes Sebastian Vettel is driving even better this year than he did in 2011, it's just that the tyres have made his form a lot more variable.

Vettel romped to the championship last season with 11 victories from 19 races, but this year he has taken just one from six. He still leads the championship ahead of Sunday's Monaco Grand Prix, but, from the outside at least, he appears to be having a tougher time.

However, Horner thinks some of his performances this year have been better as he has had to adapt to a loss of rear downforce due to the ban on exhaust-blown diffusers and the new tyres.

"There have been significant rule changes over the winter, and what Sebastian achieved last year was something very special - that wasn't your normal season," Horner told Formula One's official website. "But you have to see that he's also had some fantastic races this year. His win in Bahrain, his moves that he made in Barcelona after the bad luck he had there. He is driving even better, but we can see that the form is variable with these tyres at the moment. Looking back at the first quarter of the season we've learned an awful lot of lessons and know that we are going in the right direction for the middle part of the championship."

Vettel qualified ninth at the Monaco Grand Prix on Saturday after opting to save a set of fresh super-soft tyres. He admitted after the session that he had gone the wrong way with strategy, but Horner said the performance was not indicative of a wider issue Vettel is having with the Red Bull car this year.

"Things are different, but the fact is that arriving at race six of the season he is leading the standings, so he hasn't done too badly," he added. "Probably he is not too happy with today, but I am sure that he still can have a strong race. He's got the freedom of strategy - and look at the qualifying sheet: there are some surprises. We had to learn in the last five races that in today's Formula One everything is possible - and I can tell you it's going to be a really interesting race tomorrow."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.