Formula One’s governing body, the FIA, have defended their decision to restart yesterday's German Grand Prix in the wake of fierce criticism from David Coulthard and Jacques Villeneuve.
Coulthard and Villeneuve were both at a loss to understand why the race was red-flagged following a heart-stopping first corner crash in which the Prost of Luciano Burti barrel-rolled through the air after ramming into the back of Michael Schumacher's Ferrari.
With Schumacher's car in the middle of the Hockenheim track and with debris strewn across the grid, the safety car was immediately deployed and initially took the field through the wreckage, until race stewards decided upon a restart.
After seeing his world championship hopes suffer another body blow with his McLaren suffering an engine failure two thirds of the way into the race, Coulthard later pointed an accusing finger at the FIA.
The 30-year-old Scot intimated at skullduggery as he said: "If you were cynical you would say the race was restarted because Michael was out in front of his home crowd.
"With all respect, unless it is a driver that is hurt, then they (the race director and race stewards) don't normally stop races for accidents or injuries off the track. That's not normally a reason."
Former world champion Villeneuve, who went on to finish third in his BAR, was also surprised race director Charlie Whiting ordered the restart, particularly after the safety car had been sent out.
But FIA spokesman Francesco Longanesi today justified the reasoning behind the move as he said: "To us, it is very simple.
"The amount of debris was considerable and there was no way we could have cleaned that portion of the track properly with normal brooms. We needed machines.
"We had to stop the race because there was a very serious risk of a puncture, and on a high-speed circuit like Hockenheim that could have led to catastrophic results.
"You cannot take the chance of something like that happening. We had to clean the track properly, which eventually took 15 minutes with three brooming machines. "
Among those to applaud the FIA's decision were race winner Ralf Schumacher, who claimed his third victory of the season in his Williams BMW.
The 26-year-old German said: "Given the amount of debris it would have been easy for a car to have sustained a puncture, and if that was to happen at high speed then there could have been an even worse situation."