It was a terrible way to end the season. 
Safety Cars happen and almost always end up giving an "unfair" advantage to someone. In this case both the VSC and full SC each gave a significant advantage to the second-place (at the time) car which was Verstappen. After that it was very likely he would win.
There will no doubt be arguments about that, but it's been the same all season - and longer. Ripe for review?
Another area that will probably be looked at before next year is what work can be done during a "Red Flag" break in track action.
The decision to unlap the cars that Hamilton had already passed but Verstappen hadn't and "let them race" for just one lap at the very end seems more perverse; not sure that's consistent with previous practice but it's been upheld (for now anyway) despite its inevitable outcome.
The lap 1 incident, as I see it, Verstappen only stayed on track by coming to almost a complete stop and turning sharply at low speed. So he lost a lot of time due to his "lunge/dive" or whatever you call it.
Hamilton also lost time due to being forced off track and going across the runoff area, he almost certainly didn't get through the corner faster than "normal".
So both drivers had a sub-optimal corner and lost time, but Verstappen lost more. He was never going to get round the corner normally anyway, so the "no action" decision seems sensible, given it was him that created the situation.
The net result was that they were still in the same order, both lost time, cars behind were closer and the driver who created the situation was relatively slightly worse off.
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2003 D2 FL S8. Irish Green Pearl/Beige. Solar sunroof, auto-dim mirrors, electric rear seat functions and extended leather. Ski hatch retrofit. Aftermarket reversing camera. DVB-T and XCarlink now removed as redundant.
2016 Volvo V40 T5 Cross Country (4WD) with ALL the toys including adaptive cruise etc. etc. Osmium Grey with Blonde/Charcoal leather interior. Polestar performance "optimisation".  (Even rarer than a D2 S8!) Oh, and a brand new engine at just under 30,000 miles on the factory one! 
Finally: gone, but not forgotten.....
1998 D2 PF S8. Agate Grey/Platinum. Every option (I think) except electric rear seats, Tiptronic steering wheel, ski hatch, towbar & dimming door mirrors.
e.g. Cruise control, NavPlus/TV, Bose, GSM, Xenons, Solar roof, Parking sensors, Alcantara/leather everywhere of course.  (internal dimming mirror added later)
1998 (very early) Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec; ABS/TCS, Heated screen/mirrors, Aircon. Added Auto-dim mirror, Leather seats, Trip computer, Cruise control, OEM Ford SatNav with CD changer.
And before that a lot of Rover 800s, a few oddities, a lovely Triumph Dolomite 1850HL with Overdrive and way back in my schooldays an Austin Seven aka Mini 850!
Last edited by HPsauce; 12th December 2021 at 06:56 PM.
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