The Japan Times - Verstappen makes clear he is gunning for a fifth world title

After avoiding direct comment on the championship for several weeks, Red Bull's four-time champion said he felt sure he now has a real chance of snatching the title from the grasp of McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

Boosted by cutting Piastri's advantage to 40 points with five Grands Prix remaining, including two more sprint races, a buoyant Verstappen called for Red Bull to maintain their momentum.

"Yeah, for sure, the chance is there," he said. "We just need to try and deliver these weekends until the end. We will try whatever we can."

After winning both Saturday's sprint and Sunday's Grand Prix race, Verstappen has 306 points in the title race, in third place, leaving Piastri on top with 346 points and Norris on 332.

McLaren have already won the constructors' title for the second consecutive year, but have focussed on preparing for 2026 and stopped introducing updates to their car for this year -– leaving their drivers nervously scrambling to keep their title bids on track.

The 28-year-old Dutchman has now collected 119 points from a possible 135 over the last five Grand Prix weekends -- a run that has also coincided with improvements in form from both Mercedes and Ferrari.

Verstappen added: "It was an unbelievable weekend for us. I knew that the race was not going to be super straightforward and I think, if you look at the whole race, the pace between myself and Lando was really close.

"I think on the first stint is where we made the difference. I could eek out a little bit of a gap and that is basically what we kept until the end."

He added: "I am Incredibly proud of everyone to deliver a weekend like this and now we just have to keep the momentum."

Verstappen's late season charge has prompted memories of the 2007 season when Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari went into the final race in Brazil trailing both McLaren drivers, Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, but emerged as champion.

K.Okada--JT