FIA explains why Azerbaijan GP was completed after Verstappen crash

Michael Masi is in conversation with The Race. Masi addressed the issue of why Max Verstappen's crash triggered a red flag and Lance Stroll's did not. The FIA chief also explains why the race was 'simply' finished with just two laps to go.

Formula 1 has the option to wave the chequered flag if 75% or more of the race has been completed at the time of the red flag. Nevertheless, Masi decided to run the last two laps after all. "At that point in my opinion the best option was to suspend the race, clean everything up, and then have a race finish. For a number of years now, we’ve had the race suspension regulations. So going back many, many years ago, when a race was red-flagged after a certain distance, it would go back two laps and so forth," he said.

"There is an option to not restart, but within the timeframe and within the format of the regulations, we can restart and there was no reason not to.”

Masi wanted to finish under normal conditions

And why was Verstappen's crash good for a code red and Stroll's was not? "In the middle of the race, there was more than enough time and space on the right hand side of the track when we were recovering it. I was confident with the way that could be cleaned up in that fashion."