Max Verstappen has not ruled out the chance to win a fifth Formula 1 world title as he closes the gap on leader Oscar Piastri in the drivers' championship with his dominant victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Two weeks on from his victory at Monza and with seven races remaining, Verstappen's win in Baku puts him 69 points behind Piastri -- who, on a rare weekend of mistakes, crashed in qualifying and again on Lap 1 of Sunday's race.
As chaos erupted in Baku on Saturday -- with qualifying suspended a record six times leading to a mixed-up grid -- Verstappen took pole position with Norris only seventh quickest.
On Sunday, with Piastri out on Lap 1, Norris was unable to capitalize on the points-scoring opportunity, finishing where he started and seeing the advantage over Verstappen shrink to 44 points.
The Dutchman's flawless weekend saw him take his sixth career Grand Slam (pole, fastest lap, win, led all laps) and now stands level with Lewis Hamilton for the second-most in F1 history.
"This weekend has been incredible for us," Verstappen told reporters. "Of course, last weekend was already great. But yeah, for us to win here again is just fantastic.
"That's another just great result. A bit unusual. This season has been really swinging left and right, but at least now two weekends in a row, it's been going really well."
Asked by reporters if he sees an opportunity in the drivers' championship battle, he said: "I mean, I don't rely on hope.
"Seven races to go and it's still 69 points? It's a lot.
"But basically everything needs to go perfect from my side. And then a bit of luck from there from their [McLaren] side I need as well, you know, so it's still very tough."
"So I personally don't think about it. I just go race by race, what I have been doing basically the whole season -- just trying to do the best we can, try to score the most points that we can. And then after Abu Dhabi, we'll know."
McLaren team boss Andrea Stella has noted Verstappen's back-to-back victories. "Red Bull look improved," he told SiriusXM after the race.
"I think they have made a genuine improvement. They had upgrades in Monza. They seem to have found a way to exploit these upgrades with the setup.
"I said that yesterday already that Max and Red Bull will be regular contenders for the wins, and definitely Max is a contender for the drivers' championship. So there's a lot of work ahead of us. We need to stay focused, improve, and we will go again."