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FIA race director Michael Masi has responded to calls for the aborted Belgian Grand Prix to have been postponed until Monday. Heavy rain meant there was no competitive racing on Sunday’s race with the conditions too dangerous.
The result was classified despite just two laps behind the safety car at Spa-Francorchamps following a near three-hour break after the formation lap.
The race was red-flagged after that and again later on after just two completed laps behind the safety car, with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen declared the race winner and awarded half points.
George Russell was awarded his first Formula One podium by coming second for Williams while Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes came third.
Verstappen therefore cuts seven-time world champion Hamilton’s championship lead to just three points.
Hamilton was among those unhappy post-race, insisting to Sky Sports F1: “Money talks. And literally the two laps to start the race was all a money scenario. Everyone gets their money – and I think the fans should get theirs back too.
“Unfortunately they didn’t get to see what they paid for. It’s a shame we couldn’t do the race tomorrow. I love this track as well, so sad we couldn’t do this. Today wasn’t a race.
“I think the sport made a bad choice today. Of course we wanted to race but this minimum of two laps you need to do to count as a race, between the gap [between the race stopping and resuming] it rained consistently.
“There was only one reason why they sent us out. That’s why I feel more bad for the fans.”
Yet Masi insisted it was never a possibility that the race could be pushed back another 24 hours to enable more action out on track.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Masi said: “It’s been a long old day! We’ve seen the worst of the weather today.
“There’s no ability to postpone the race until tomorrow. Obviously from an FIA perspective and jointly with F1, safety is paramount for the drivers, the teams and all of the spectators.
“We gave every available opportunity within the regulations and within the provisions of the International Sporting Code to get the best opportunity to be able to complete a race, but unfortunately on this occasion we could not go the full distance that was available.
“With the provisions of the ISC to stop the clock, that’s what we tried to do to try and get ourselves in that weather window and get some activity.
“There’s a whole range, a big list pages long that would run between organisers, you know, everyone here… there’s no ability to postpone to the following day.
“I don’t know logistically if it’s a possibility that it could have been [run later in the year].”
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