Quote:
Originally Posted by Fossilkid93
Certainly it's better to pit under safety car if possible, but the average time lost is still 14 seconds. Lando wasn't even 14 seconds clear of Leclerc in 3rd so it's likely he would've come out 3rd, or at best 2nd. You're supposed to maintain the gap between cars under SC/VSC. You don't just get to drive off and turn an 11 sec gap into 30.
Noone cares b/c we're all happy Lando won, but if the roles were reversed and Max stole a win from Lando like this then I'd imagine there would've been a massive uproar and possibly positions given back b/c of the error.
The gaps immediately get much larger under a safety car because they're going slower so the same distance between cars obviously takes longer to cover. A 10s gap before the safety car is closer to 20s under the safety car, which would have been more than enough for Lando to come out still in 1st.
As for the safety car picking up Max instead of Lando that was obviously a bit weird and why the gap went to ~30s instead of the natural ~20s but it happened because Lando had just gone past the pits when the safety car came out so was naturally just ahead of it. If the safety car had come out 10s sooner then Lando would have gone into the pits immediately, still almost certainly come out ahead, and the safety car would probably have picked him up correctly.