With Max Verstappen's win hanging in the balance, the sport was left on tenterhooks for over three hours as the Spielberg stewards deliberated over the controversial incident on lap 69 which saw the Dutchman pass Charles Leclerc to take victory in the Austrian GP.

In that time, the FIA website crashed under the pressure, and a fake document was doing the rounds on social media claiming that Verstappen had been handed a time penalty and that therefore Leclerc was the winner.

At around 19:50 (local time), the decision finally came, it was a "racing incident" and the result stood.

Coming in the wake of controversial decisions which impacted both the Canadian and French races, Race director, Michael Masi was asked why the decision had taken so long.

"The primary part was we didn't get going until 6pm, because of the various media commitments, the (TV) pen and the post-race press conference," he said, according to Motorsport.com.

"The hearing itself, give or take, was about an hour with all parties involved," he revealed. "The stewards deliberated, looked at other cases, precedents, and spoke between themselves.

"By the time you write the decision and then make sure there are no typos or anything in it and so forth, and then summon the teams back, delivering the decision to them, it quickly adds up.

"Time flies a lot more when you're sitting outside like all of us than it does when you're sitting in the room. So it was just one of those things, they were considering absolutely everything."

That said, the fact is that, not for the first time, the sport was effectively in limbo, and for several hours after the race it was unclear who had actually won.

"You want the right decision made," he said, "considering all the circumstances and all the factors that are around, and using as much as information as you have available.

"It's one of those nuances in this sport," he continued. "We can't blow a whistle and freeze everything, make a decision, and play on. We try wherever possible to have the podium be the podium, but when it's the last two or three laps of the race, it does make it quite difficult.

"If it was something that happened on lap three I would have thought that if the stewards felt they had everything, they would have made a decision and it would have been 'play on'."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Spielberg, here.

LATEST NEWS

more news >

LATEST IMAGES

galleries >

Click to go to the main galleries section

READERS COMMENTS

1. Posted by Greg, 01/07/2019 18:55

"If max did not have tje room to complete given that The previous lap they did touch, its obvious that Max ran wide to force Lec of the track. I still stick to my opinion on a previous post tat incidents should be incidents and there is too much crying fouls for every little thing that happens. The cars are need to be less susceptible to damage from a slight touch. "

Rating: Neutral (0) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Batman, 01/07/2019 18:11

"Posted by F1nerd, 2 hours ago

"... Ver forced Lec off the track by a wheel banging pass."
I'll add this, front wheel versus front wheel wich means, no one was in front of the other. The driver at the outside path was giving room to the guy inside, avoiding a collision, as rules determine. We can't say the same from the driver was driving the inside path. Ferrari did well in not appealing, I think. But, maybe we fans should do it.
We need to know if "banging wheels " we'll be the next passing technique.
I dont really care of the color of the cars or who cries louder."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

3. Posted by F1nerd, 01/07/2019 16:24

"Why should it take so long to make a wrong decision, Ver forced Lec off the track by a wheel banging pass."

Rating: Positive (1) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

4. Posted by Young Slinger, 01/07/2019 11:33

"The very large contingent of Dutch fans wouldn't have taken any penalty quietly, either."

Rating: Positive (3) Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

Masi explains reason for 'delay' in stewards decision

LATEST NEWS

RELATED ARTICLES

LATEST IMAGES

POST A COMMENT

Post your comment

READERS COMMENTS

Share this page