Verstappen casts verdict on title fight chances after dominant Baku win

When asked if he can still hope to fight for the title this year, the Dutchman stated: "I don't rely on hope, but it's seven rounds left, and 69 points is a lot. So I personally don't think about it—I just take it race by race, which is what I’ve been doing basically the whole season: trying to do the best we can, trying to score as many points as possible. And then after Abu Dhabi, we'll know."

With his second consecutive win and Oscar Piastri’s retirement, Verstappen has cut the gap to the top of the Drivers’ Championship to 69 points—a deficit still significant, but one that keeps him in contention if Red Bull can maintain this form in the remaining races of the season.

Red Bull now arrives in Singapore, a track radically different from Monza and Baku, where the RB21 would theoretically be expected to struggle again against the MCL39.

When asked if he now has a better chance of winning at Marina Bay given the recent upgrades, Verstappen replied: "We'll see. It's completely different—high downforce, a lot of degradation on the tyres. So we'll see what happens. I really don't know at the moment."

After a dominant win at Monza two weeks ago, today’s race in Baku was similarly one-sided. The four-time world champion took a calculated risk by starting on the hard tyres, yet comfortably maintained the lead through Turn 1 and began stringing together consistently fast laps, extending his gap over Sainz to more than ten seconds.

He then managed the lead all the way to the pit stop, ultimately cruising to an easy victory ahead of George Russell.