Masi: In hindsight we would've handled Q2 incident differently

The second safety incident in as many races, cars at the start of Q2 had to pass a mobile crane still working to recover the beached Williams of Nicholas Latifi from Q1 at the gravel outside turn 8, after race control allowed the session to begin prior to the vehicle's removal.

Unsurprisingly, the decision has been met with widespread condemnation on social media, particularly given the pattern of negligence emerging after a high-speed near-miss with marshals during the last race at Imola.

After that incident, F1's governing body the FIA promised to 'evaluate the need for changes' in its procedures, and Masi issued a similar message in explaining what transpired on Saturday.

"We released the cars from pit lane as the recovery vehicle was moving to the escape road following information given to race control by the clerk of the course that the vehicle would be clear of the track before the cars on their outlaps reached Turn 8, where the recovery was taking place,” he said.

"As soon as it became apparent that the recovery vehicle had been delayed in moving completely into the barrier opening, we extended the area of double-waved yellow flags from Turn 8 to the entry point of Turn 7 to further slow down the cars on their outlaps.

"Clearly this is not a scenario we want to see, and with the benefit of hindsight we would have done it differently and held the cars until the recovery was completed.

"We will review our procedures to minimise the likelihood of similar incidents in future."