Red Bull Racing advisor Helmut Marko believes that Max Verstappen victimized at Baku, Silverstone and Hungary and its cost 50 points innocently for him, which is lost sufficient point domination over Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton and Verstappen had been neck-and-neck all over the season in their fight for the world title, but it is Verstappen who is on top now as he leads the seven-time F1 world champion by 13 points.

“Before the last three races, we actually feared that we would be significantly behind,” Marko told Motorsport.com.

“The bottom line is that we scored more points than Hamilton in those grands prix, mainly because of Hamilton’s race in Turkey where he was only fifth, while Max finished second in Sochi – certainly by luck as well, because of the rain.

“But even more remarkable is: we innocently lost Baku, lost Silverstone and lost Hungary. If you calculate the amount of points we lost carefully, then it’s over 50 points in those three races.

“As a result we are only 12 points ahead now. So we have survived all those setbacks and we have also been able to match the upswing from Mercedes.”

Marko also claims that the Dutchman will need at least two more victories in the remaining five races in order to guarantee his first F1 drivers ‘championship.

“Looking at the remaining races, I think we have to win at least two more races to be reasonably safe or, let’s say, confident going into the final race,” he said.

“The high altitude tracks of Brazil and Mexico should suit us significantly better. It’s just that so much has already happened this season.

“So-called Mercedes tracks weren’t Mercedes tracks in the end and the same goes for Red Bull tracks.”

When the news source Motorsport.com asked what are Verstappen’s possibilities of winning the title, Marko said: “If we win the next two races, then it’s 60-40 for Max.”