As he takes another bite out of Oscar Piastri's championship lead, Max Verstappen insists that he is not thinking about the title.

Of course he isn't... after all, why would he? Max is clearly happy to settle for the four.

Or rather he isn't, for the Dutchman has that ruthless streak, much like Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, that means not simply beating the opposition but remorselessly crushing it.

Until yesterday, it appeared that Oscar Piastri has it, unlike his McLaren teammate, but the Australian's numerous mistakes over the weekend, suggest that there is still work to be done.

As for Verstappen, pole, leading lights to flag and claiming fastest lap - F1's grand slam - is the sixth of his career.

"This weekend has been incredible for us," he told reporters at race end. "Of course, last weekend (Monza) was already great. But yeah, for us to win here again is just fantastic.

"That's another just great result," he beamed. "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 about the title, he replied: "I don't rely on hope... seven races to go and it's still 69 points? It's a lot," he added, though clearly having calculated the difference.

"Basically everything needs to go perfect from my side," he continued. "And then a bit of luck from there from their side I need as well, you know, so it's still very tough.

"Personally don't think about it," he insisted. "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."

Indeed, McLaren boss, Andrea Stella reiterated his fear that Verstappen is a serious threat.

"I think they have made a genuine improvement," he said. "They had upgrades in Monza and they seem to have found a way to exploit these upgrades with the set-up.

"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," he added. "So there's a lot of work ahead of us. We need to stay focused, improve, and we will go again."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Baku here.