Red Bull driver Verstappen was leading the race after poleman Charles Leclerc made a second pit stop to fit a new set of soft tyres.
Although still a long way off, the Monegasque had slowly closed in on Max Verstappen, who was playing a one-stop strategy on medium tyres, when Daniel Ricciardo stopped his McLaren between the two Lesmo corners, where his car came to a standstill.
The stewards were unable to remove the car and get it behind the barriers, and needed a tow truck to get it out of the loopholes.
Although the leaders pitted for new tyres, in anticipation of the race resuming, everything remained under a safety car regime until the end of the Italian GP, leading to the frustration of both second-placed Leclerc and chief of Verstappen’s team, Christian Horner .
“There was plenty of time to get on with the race,” Horner told Sky. “I think they got the wrong car, they got Russell.”
Following the anger of the tifosi at the Monza circuit and fans in general on social media, the FIA has responded to explain why the race ended under Safety Car, stating that the seriousness of the incident was not great enough to justify raise a red flag.
An FIA spokesman said: “Although every effort was made to recover the number 3 car quickly and restart the race, the situation developed and the stewards were unable to put the car in neutral and push it into the escape lane.
“As the safety of the car removal operation is our only priority, and the incident was not significant enough to require a red flag, the race ended under safety car following the procedures agreed between the FIA and all competitors. .
“The timing of the safety car period within a race has nothing to do with that procedure.”
Leclerc acknowledged that the safety car interruption had not unduly altered his race result: “I would have liked to finish the race, but unfortunately we were second at that point because of what happened before,” he said.
The crazy end of Formula 3, the first race this Sunday in Italy, was stopped with a red flag due to an accident involving Kush Maini and Brad Benavides at the exit of the second Lesmo corner (Lesmo 2), where the first he spun and his rival could not dodge him.
That ultimately settled the championship in favor of ART driver Victor Martins, who only lost one place due to a five-second track limit penalty and therefore finished fourth for the title.
