Ferrari returns to rejoice three weeks after Barcelona, on a track where great suffering was expected due to the engine. He does it again with Charles Leclerc, almost two years after the last time, with the Monegasque who can finally breathe a sigh of relief after a rather complicated period.
But events, fortunate from a certain point of view, still leave room for contradiction for the final decision of the Race Direction in managing the Safety Car. We are lap 51 of 52. Looking at the official communications from the FIA, at 17:27:42 the Safety Car is called back to the pits to give the drivers the opportunity to compete in the last lap, after allowing the lapped drivers to overtake the cars at full revs and join the group. However, just eight seconds later, at 17:27:50, the counter-order appears: “Safety Car deployed”. The FIA’s explanation The first plausible explanation, hypothesized right from the start, is that the Race Direction was aware of the impossibility for some drivers to rejoin the group according to the procedure, so much contested after the events of Abu Dhabi 2021. According to what was communicated by the FIA at the end of the race, it was a simple error in the publication of the first message which called the Safety Car to the pits. “The regulation relating to the Safety Car period, article B5.13.5, establishes that one lap must be completed after the splitting procedure – reads the message from the Federation – The message ‘Safety Car in this lap’ was displayed incorrectly due to a software error”. Ferrari had bet on the return of the Safety Car, which had stopped Hamilton to put him on Soft tires and allow him to be in a better position in the battle against Russell. In fact, before Verstappen’s accident, the Englishman from Mercedes was using medium tires that were much newer than Lewis’ Hard ones. A missed opportunity also for Antonelli, who should have tried – albeit with great difficulty – to create a 5 second gap to serve the penalty for track limits and take home at least one point.
Automobile Magazine – Formula1 English, News
2026-07-05 16:25:00
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