Whiting defends decision to use safety car

The decision to deploy the safety car was deemed to be the correct one, however, Sebastian Vettel had a lot to say about the timing of the decision, preventing the German from being able to have the choice to pit for fresh tyres whilst his rivals behind capitalised.

FIA race director Charlie Whiting has defended his decision to send the safety car out to recover debris after the two Toro Rosso cars clashed at the turn 14 hairpin during the Chinese Grand Prix.

By bringing out the safety car when he did, Red Bull was able to change strategy on the fly whilst the leaders couldn't due to being past the pitlane entry when the signal was given.

"If we decide to use the Safety Car it’s for safety reasons and I don’t look to see who’s going to be advantaged and disadvantaged," Whiting said.

“We waited until there was a good gap in the traffic.

"The debris was scattered over a large area and I wanted to wait until the Safety Car had got the cars behind it before I was prepared to send any marshals out." he continued.

“If you’ve got the marshals have come a long way, they’re just exposed out there. I know they’re doing 30% of a real lap but it’s still quite fast and I’m not sure you can totally trust drivers to do the right thing.”

In the end, it was Daniel Ricciardo who was able to make the most of the opportunity, surging to the front with some brilliant overtaking and winning the Chinese Grand Prix.