Lewis Hamilton: Belgian GP safety car call contrived like NASCAR

Hamilton held a two-second lead over Vettel when the safety car was deployed after a clash between Force India drivers Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon that scattered debris from the exit of La Source to the exit of Raidillon.

Hamilton complained over the team radio that "there's no debris anywhere" and it was a "BS call from the stewards" to deploy the safety car, which remained on track for three laps.

After beating Vettel in the eight-lap sprint at the end, Hamilton likened the safety car appearance to NASCAR, where the organisers are sometimes accused of throwing unnecessary caution periods for debris to enliven races.

"I felt like it is a bit like NASCAR where they keep pulling out the safety car for no reason," Hamilton said.

"The wing was cleared, after we'd slowed down they could have done a virtual safety car but I guess they wanted to see a race.

"So that's for sure the reason they did that, because there was hardly any debris, if at all, they cleaned it so well."

Vettel admitted that without the safety car it would have been "difficult to get in range".

"I was fairly healthy - 15 laps to go, I would probably have finished like that," he said.

"With the safety car I felt a chance but it wasn't good enough chance."

Vettel: I got too close

The safety car allowed the field to switch tyres, with Hamilton's Mercedes taking softs and Ferrari putting Vettel onto the ultra-softs.

Vettel was tucked up underneath the Mercedes' rear wing through Eau Rouge and Raidillon at the restart and forced Hamilton to defend on the run to Les Combes.

Hamilton resisted the attack, which proved to be Vettel's only opportunity as Hamilton gradually extended his lead to win by 2.3s.

"You could see exiting Turn 1 [La Source] I was all over Lewis, it was not so hard to follow close," said Vettel, who said he was not helped by Hamilton lifting on the run to Eau Rouge.

"Maybe that was problem, my restart was too good.

"If I had to do it again maybe I would try something different."

Hamilton said his "front tyres were not switched on initially", which handed Vettel the chance to attack at the restart.

He agreed Vettel "was a bit too close" out of La Source, adding: "He had to lift off, as he could have gone by on the run to Eau Rouge."