A sudden left-rear tyre failur🌠e sent Verstappen careering into the wall along Baku’s long m🍸ain straight with five laps to go, with the incident resulting in a red flag suspension and the race to end with a two-lap sprint to the finish following a standing restart.

Despite Verstappen’s heavy impact with the wall which scattered debris💖 across the track, racing continued for nearly a fu𝓡ll lap before the Safety Car was deployed, something Leclerc branded as a “joke” during the race.

“That’s a joke, that’s a joke,” Leclerc said over team radio when informed they were ♑still racing after passing the scene of Verstappen’s crash.

“Put the fucking safety cꦰar out straight away, why are th𝓰ey waiting?”

Leclerc explained after the race that he still unsure why it had take🍷n so long for race control to respond and said he would be raising the issue at the next drivers’ briefing at the French Grand Prix.

"I was just surprised th༒ere was not a Safety Car earlier, that's why I raised my concerns on the radio," Leclerc said.

“For me, it was clear I ꧅would stop pushing with a crash like this. It's in the mid❀dle of a straight, so it's quite dangerous.

"It just took longer than what I expected, that's it. B✅ut I think all the drivers have been surprised the same way.

“The Safety Car thing I will definitely bring up just to understand why took a bit ♑longer tha✃n normally. That will be a point I raise.”

Most of the drivers had pa🔯ssed the scene 💎of Verstappen’s accident before the Safety Car was deployed, meaning they continued racing after the yellow flag zone.

Some drivers, including Leclerc and Ferrari teammate Carlo⭕s Sainz, visibly slowed more than others approaching Verstappen’s crashed car.

“I nearly got overtaken𓆏 by [Daniel] Ricciardo,” explained Sainz.

“Both Charles and I slowed down, we must have been the ones toౠ slow down the most. ꦑBasically a Virtual Safety Car there or a Safety Car would have helped more I think.”

He added: ”Norma𝐆lly when there is such a big accident, first there is a double yellow, and then straightaway seconds after there is a Safety Car.

"Today it took, I think it was 30 seconds, one minute, for the Safety Car to be deployed, and we had to go through a very heavy accident in only yellow flag cond🔜itions.”