Verstappen had been on course𒅌 for a dominant victory in Baku as he led a Red Bull 1-2 in the closing stages of last weekend’s race. Wi꧂th Hamilton running third behind the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, Verstappen was looking set to open up a 15-point lead over the Mercedes driver in the championship.

But a dramatic tyre failure at high-speed along Baku’s main straight sent Verstappen spearing off into the barriers, ending his chances of moving level with Hamilton on three wins each f🎶rom the opening six races of 2021    

"Sometimes you can hate this sport," he told 🐠Sky Sports F1. “We were fully in control, so I find it very disappointing what happened.

"We los💝t out on a lot of points, we could have opened up that gap in the championship so to have this happening, especially so close to the end was very frustrating.”

Despite being able to maintain his four-point aꦰdvantage due to a rare mistake from Hamilton which dropped him out of the points, the Dutchman knows Red Bull has missed a golden opportunity given that it enjoyed a clear advantage over Mꦐercedes in the last two street races.

And Verstappen is wary that Mercedes will once again be the team to b🥃eat in the upcoming tr🌺iple-header of races in France and Austria on what are considered to be more typical F1 circuits.

"We've had these two street circuits and n♑ow we go back to normal tracks,” Verstappen explained.

"For sure Mercedes will be very strong on normal tracks, they had some difficulties on the street circuits but as you c🥀ould see also in Barcelona they are mighty quick.

"We need to keep on our toes and keep pushing hard because they also have a ജvery good car even if sometimes they don't say it. They do.

"It's just a shame. I wanted to open up that gap a little bit more before we go back to those kind of tr🎃acks. Although we're still leading the championship which I didn't expect when I hit that wall.”

Verstappen revealed that he only learned of Hamilton’s error while hꦡe was visiting the medical centre as a precaution following his hefty shunt.

“I had to g꧟o to the medical centre, but I couldn’t of course ge🐼t there so I had to do a long route,” he said.

“[Then I found out] when I was laying on the bed [in the medical centre]! They were checking my blood pressure and sudꦗ🔜denly my phone was vibrating a lot.

“So I said, ‘What’s going on?’ because I could 🐈hear the ca꧟rs of course. And then I was done and I was allowed to leave, and I saw on my phone that Lewis had a problem in Turn 1.”