Toto Wolff praises F1 stewards for following rules 'this time' but Ferrari boss unhappy

dailystar.co.uk:

Toto Wolff made a cheeky reference to the botched handling of the safety car period in Abu Dhabi last year following the anti-climatic ending to the Italian Grand Prix.The safety car was brought out with five laps to go at Monza after Daniel Ricciardo’s McLaren broke down in an awkward position on track, with marshals having a tricky time removing it.The situation bore an uncanny resemblance to the final laps of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in December.

Except on that occasion, cars between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen were allowed to unlap themselves and racing resumed earlier than it should have under normal rules.

That saw one final racing lap which allowed Verstappen to overtake Hamilton and clinch the world title. READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton impresses Max Verstappen with sensational double overtake at Italian GP As a result of that fiasco, race director Michael Masi lost his job and subsequently left FIA, the sport’s governing body.At Monza, to the frustration of many, the safety car stayed out until the end of the race.

Many observers felt the race should have been red-flagged and restarted or that the safety car should have come in earlier.However, memories of Abu Dhabi clearly still fresh, Mercedes boss Wolff had no issue with how the situation in Italy was handled.“The race director is always going to be under criticism but this time they followed the rules,” he told Sky Sports F1.“Maybe they could have done it [brought the safety car in] a lap earlier but at least they followed the rules and they accepted that the race ends under a safety car.”He then added with a smile: “This is how it should be or should’ve been.”However, Italian fans were less than impressed that Charles Leclerc wasn’t granted a late stab to.