Silverstone safety car decision was the right call for Wolff

SILVERSTONE, England, July 5 : Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said Formula One had made the right call after Sunday's British Grand Prix ended under safety car conditions, to some boos from the crowd who had wanted to see a last-lap fight to the finish.

The decision echoed controversial and painful memories of the 2021 world championship decider in Abu Dhabi when the usual safety car procedures were changed by the then-race director Michael Masi to avoid the race finishing behind the safety car.

That led to Red Bull's Max Verstappen, on fresher tyres, overtaking Mercedes's Lewis Hamilton and taking his first title - in the process denying the Briton a record eighth.

Hamilton, now with Ferrari, was the one on fresh tyres on Sunday after pitting from second place when the safety car was deployed four laps from the end after Verstappen crashed.

Mercedes's George Russell stayed out, contrary to Ferrari's expectations, and became the target but this time the lapped cars were allowed to unlap themselves and the race ran out of time to resume, leaving Hamilton third.

"I would have preferred for this to happen in '21," Wolff told reporters. "That was more important.

"But it's good that the regulations have been followed. Sometimes it doesn't give for the most exciting finale. Generally from a spectacle standpoint, everybody would have loved to see Lewis on a soft (tyre) against us and maybe fighting with (Ferrari teammate Charles) Leclerc.

"But this is a sport. The show follows sport and not the other way around. So it's good that the FIA made that call."

JUST HOW THE RACING GOES

The boos came after the race direction announced, erroneously, that the safety car would come in with one lap remaining but it then stayed out. The governing FIA said