Charles Leclerc, a cat, and the Baku City Circuit

Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc reported seeing something rather strange on the track during Saturday’s F1 sprint race

Charles Leclerc qualified on pole position for Saturday’s Formula One sprint race in Azerbaijan. While he was unable to hold off Sergio Perez for the victory, Leclerc was able to fend off Max Verstappen, and finish in second place to secure seven much-needed points in the standings.

But for a brief moment, there was concern that Leclerc’s day was going to take yet another difficult turn for him, and Ferrari.

As the field prepared to restart after a safety car brought out when Yuki Tsunoda lost a tyre, Leclerc radioed into his team about something that had just happened inside his SF-23. There was speculation in the F1TV booth that he was dealing with yet another power issue, and that the power unit in his car had “cut” out.

However, Leclerc clarified that “cut” was not what he said.

Rather, he said “cat.”

Because a cat was on the track.

“I said a ‘cat’, which is different!,” Leclerc said in post-race press conference. “There was a cat in the middle of the road and the Safety Car had to stop. But I think I was probably the only one who saw that.

“In the exit of turn one, there was a cat and the Safety Car braked. It wasn’t too bad.”

On Monday, F1 shared a clip of that moment, from an onboard camera inside the safety car:

Honestly, as a cat lover, if there is anything that can get an F1 race to stop, it is a fearless feline.