Max Verstappen has claimed he would have called someone an "idiot" had he been told after the Dutch GP that he would leave the United States Grand Prix in the title fight.
The four-time world champion claimed a comfortable victory at the Circuit of the Americas to complete a perfect weekend, having also secured Sprint pole, sprint victory and grand prix pole.
It represented the third time in Verstappen's F1 career that he had achieved the sprint weekend feat, something no other driver has ever managed.
His remarkable form since winning the Italian GP has seen him take a huge step towards McLaren's Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris in the drivers' title fight.
After Zandvoort, Verstappen sat 104 points behind Piastri; however, following three wins and a second-place finish in the last four rounds, he now finds himself just 40 adrift.
Red Bull's upgrade package for the Italian GP which featured a new floor has transformed the RB21 and Verstappen's season, putting him in genuine contention for a record-equalling fifth consecutive title.
Asked if someone had told him in Zandvoort that he would be in the title fight after Austin whether he would have believed them, Verstappen said: "No. I would have told him he was an idiot.
"But, yeah, we found a good way with the car. It's simple as that. Of course, we put some upgrades on the car, but we just understood our car a bit better — where we wanted it to perform better.
"And, yeah, every weekend we try to achieve it. Some weekends, you know, it's better than others, but in general, it's been way more straightforward the last few weekends compared to before those races.
"So that's what we need to try and extract out of it now every single weekend."
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