I still can't get my head around it, nor the FIA's justification of it for that matter.
I don't remember exactly when the lapped cars may overtake rule came back in, but I can't recall a single situation in recent history where one part of the rule overrode another. To the best of my knowledge, the situation has always been that the first part of the rule allowed all lapped cars to overtake, give them the lap to get down the road, and only then is the "Safety car in this lap" message displayed. I can't recall a single incident where the application of those rules was at it was yesterday. Now, obviously we've not been in this situation before. But, to me at least, being in a one lap fight for the championship should not give any right to change the well established precedent in how rules are applied.
Second to this is that the race director is allowed to effectively override that procedure if he sees fit. Well, again, I can't recall a situation where that has ever happened before. Obviously the race director should have the ability to decide when/if a safety car should be deployed. But I cannot, for the life of me, see it's right for him to then decide, above written regulations that have always been applied a specific way, how that safety car should operate. It goes against all precedent.
Also, if it was done in the name of motor racing, why then was Sainz not allowed the same opportunity as Max? He's in P3 on merit, OK he was on worn tyres and would almost certainly not have passed Max or Lewis. But, why does that mean he isn't allowed the opportunity to try and fight for the race win? The fact he's not in title winning contention shouldn't really be relevant.
