Hamilton calls SC deployment 'a bit like NASCAR'

Lewis Hamilton likened the Safety Car use in the Belgian Grand Prix as similar to a NASCAR approach, claiming the race stewards wanted to add more excitement to the race.

Having led Sebastian Vettel during a close battle throughout, Hamilton was nearly two seconds clear of the championship leader when the Safety Car was deployed to clear debris after a collision between the Force India drivers. Hamilton called the decision "BS" over team radio and felt such an approach was unnecessary.

"Well, I felt it was a bit like NASCAR, where they keep pulling out the Safety Cars for no reason," Hamilton said. "The wing was cleared after we'd slowed down. They could have done a VSC but I guess they wanted to see a race, so that's for sure the reason they did that, because there was hardly any debris, if at all, they cleaned it so well.

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"Anyway, before that it was obviously close. The Ferrari has generally had the upper hand, particularly on race pace, throughout the weekend and very, very strong today and obviously I was towing him around everywhere, so they were getting a good tow out of the straights. And on the restart the Safety Car was driving so slow – it was I guess to let the other people catch up, but keeping tire temperature, being that I was on the harder tire, was very, very difficult."

Hamilton explained how he dealt with the following pressure from Vettel, with the Ferrari driver saying the race leader had cleverly lifted on the approach to Eau Rouge.

"Yeah, it came to the restart, Sebastian was obviously very, very close. The front tires weren't switched on initially and he got a good tow. I think he was little bit close down the run out of Turn 1, so I think he probably had to lift off or otherwise he would have come by potentially before Eau Rouge, which was a good thing for me because having to lift he loses a bit of performance. But he did a great race – he was very, very consistent throughout.

"It was fun to be racing against, firstly another team, and Sebastian really at his best and with the car at the best, being so close. We were just battling within half a tenth every single lap and that's what racing is all about. As I said, I think they were able to keep up and follow quite closely for a long, long time, so I think ultimately they had the better pace today but fortunately I was able to do just enough to stay ahead."