FIA race director Michael Masi has been accused of making some “strange decisions” by former F1 driver Johnny Herbert after coming under fire for the conclusion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
With five laps remaining of the title-deciding race between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen, Nicolas Latifi crashed into the wall, bringing out a late safety car.
As per rules, Verstappen dove into the pits to put on a fresh pair of soft tyres to give him the best chance of catching Hamilton.
Lapped cars are normally allowed to pass the leaders and un-lap themselves so they don’t directly interfere with the leading cars, or no cars are allowed to un-lap themselves.
However, Masi made the decision to allow some cars, specifically the ones sitting directly between Hamilton and Verstappen, to un-lap themselves, but didn’t give the entire field enough time to do the same before the race restarted.
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Michael Masi ‘faces F1 sacking’ after Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finale
He added: “I know they were trying to generate a race maybe on that last lap but it was always one-sided.
“So I don’t think that was really fair the way the whole thing was put in to play because Lewis had done such a brilliant job throughout the race controlling all the way through.
“But Max and Red Bull had been really pushing it with the strategy at the same time.
“They made that very good call to get him in but they were in the right position to get those soft tyres on because it’s always about trying to keep the track clear for yourself, which is exactly what Lewis and Mercedes were trying to do.
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