Verstappen vows to go 'all in' for title ahead of Qatar Grand Prix

Max Verstappen has claimed he and Red Bull are "all in" for this weekend's Qatar Grand Prix in pursuit of five consecutive Drivers' Championships, having slashed the points gap at the previous round.

The Dutchman enters the penultimate round of the season just 24 points behind Lando Norris thanks to his victory last time out in Las Vegas as both McLaren drivers were disqualified.

With two Grands Prix and a Sprint remaining, there are a total of 58 points on offer with Verstappen having been the form driver in the latter stages of the season.

"Ready! See what happens. It is the same, I feel the same as last week," said Verstappen when asked about his chances at a venue where he won 12 months ago.

"Yes, it is closer. Ideally I would have loved to have had it even more close, of course we'll try our best. All in, and hopefully we can make it exciting to the end."

After the Hungarian GP in August, Verstappen claimed he and Red Bull would not win another race this season after finishing a disappointing ninth.

Since then, the four-time World Champion has taken four wins from eight races, reaching the podium in the other four, and slashed a points margin that stood at 104 to previous championship leader Oscar Piastri – the pair are now equal on 366 points.

While Verstappen admits that the second half of the season has been strong, he believes results going in his favour have played their part.

"Something that I definitely wouldn't have expected but here we are," said Verstappen when asked about his previous comments.

"I think we have had a very strong end to the season, much more happy with that and [I] guess also we've been helped a little bit with certain things.

"Results, crashes, disqualifications. We should not forget that I guess but I'm happy.

"Naturally I would have liked a bit of a better first half but that's something that you can't change. We'll just try to focus on the last two races and try to do the best we can."