Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen argued that the Belgian Grand Prix should not have been delayed for 80 minutes despite the track throwing up plumes of spray from persistent rain.

The two star men of the grid, with 11 world titles between them, felt FIA race director Rui Marques was overly cautious in calling the cars in at the prescribed 3pm start time after just the formation lap behind the safety car.

An hour’s further hiatus ensued as rain intensified. When it stopped, and the wet started to evaporate from the track, the race started behind a safety car that stayed out for four laps – longer than many observers thought necessary.

Of the initial red flag, Verstappen said to his Red Bull team over the radio: ‘That’s a bit silly. We should just run. Like chillax. Jesus.

‘They’re way too cautious. And now the rain is coming, the heavy rain.’

Told of Verstappen’s view afterwards, Hamilton, who finished an impressive seventh from 18th on the grid, said: ‘I would agree. My car was set up for that. They waited for it to dry. Especially at the end (when the safety car was out). There was a dry line with hardly any spray.’

Max Verstappen voiced his frustration over team radio, saying race officials were ‘way too cautious’ in delaying the start at Spa-Francorchamps

Lewis Hamilton agreed with Verstappen post-race, arguing that conditions were manageable and a dry line had already formed when the safety car was still out

Spray remained an issue early on but quickly cleared as the track dried — prompting criticism from some drivers that the delay was excessive

Indeed, intermediate tyres were only required for seven laps.

After a wet race in Silverstone three weeks ago, the drivers spoke to the FIA, a reason for the excess of carefulness, Hamilton believes.

He explained: ‘Lots of drivers in the last race said we shouldn’t have restarted, because of a lack of visibility. And as soon as someone up ahead said today “visibility is pretty bad”, which… it wasn’t great but it wasn’t as bad as the last race, I think they just waited.

‘They still did a good job. Of course, we did miss some of the extreme wet weather racing, which would have been nice. But for some reason the spray here is like a fog.’

Race winner Oscar Piastri disagreed with his esteemed colleagues, saying: ‘We have given the FIA feedback that we would much rather be on the safe side. If you were picky you might say we could have done one lap fewer behind the safety car, but is the risk worth it?

‘The first time we tried to start the race, with only Lando ahead, I couldn’t see a thing so you can imagine what it is like for the guys at the back.’

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, referring to recent deaths at Spa, including his friend Anthoine Hubert in a Formula Two race in 2019, said: ‘On a track like this you cannot forget about its history so I would rather be safe than go early.’

In all, 49 drivers or riders have died at Spa in 100 years.