Verstappen suffered a gearbox failure as he accelerated on to the back straight just after half distance.

He chugged the car around the track at low speed, but was told to pull off and drove through a gravel trap to the side of the circuit.

Although his car was next to a gap, the marshals could not get it to roll backwards.

When asked if he could have stopped the car sooner, in a safer position, he replied: "I could, but the team told me to keep on going, they said there is a serious issue.

"And then at one point they decided 'OK Max, stop the car over there'.

"It was in neutral, but the car got stuck. You can press a button on the top [of the chassis] but that didn't work.

"So that's why the Virtual Safety Car came out, otherwise you can just push the car into the gap."