McLaren boss Ron Dennis defended the actions of his strategists who almost robbed Lewis Hamilton of a German Grand Prix victory.
A team of planners at McLaren's headquarters in Woking told Dennis on the pit wall in Hockenheim to keep Hamilton on track after Timo Glock had wrecked his Toyota in a spectacular accident on lap 35.
Although 11 other drivers pitted once allowed to do so, including team-mate Heikki Kovalainen, Hamilton stayed out behind the safety car that had been deployed.
But to great surprise within McLaren, it remained on track longer than expected, throwing the team's plans into near disarray.
When Hamilton did pit 17 laps from home, he returned to the circuit in fifth place, but he then produced a rousing drive to take the chequered flag.
Dennis, who initially apologised to Hamilton over the team radio at the end of the race for making it "a little more difficult" for him, said: "There are two aspects to it.
"If you do one thing with one car, and something else with another, then one of the decisions is going to be right.
"At the time the safety car came out we had more than enough fuel to do a few safety laps and then pull out a lead.
"But the safety car stayed out three or four laps longer than we anticipated, and when it came in there wasn't enough time.
"But the thing is we have pace, and for most of the race we were lapping three quarters of a second faster than any other car.
"Of course, with the benefit of hindsight, maybe we should have double shuffled [one behind the other] the cars at the pit stop.
"But it's not what our strategists said, and that wasn't a decision taken from the pit wall, it was a decision taken in Woking."
Dennis also praised Kovalainen for allowing Hamilton past on lap 52 as the Briton had emerged behind the Finn after his second stop.
As team orders are banned in Formula One, Kovalainen was simply told Hamilton was much quicker, and so he took the decision upon himself to allow his team-mate by.
"The only thing we advise drivers is the respective pace of the other driver, and they ultimately call it," added Dennis.
"Lewis was nearly a second quicker than Heikki through the race, and when he was told Lewis was quicker, he just let him past.
"He knew that was the only way because the longer he would have held up Lewis, the more difficult it would have been for him to have regained the lead.
"It was a tremendous sporting gesture, and it's what being in a racing team is about.
"True team-mates do these things because that's the way they are."
There was no disguising Dennis' admiration for what then became a stunning performance from Hamilton to eventually claim his fourth win of the season, and eighth of his career.
"He did a fantastic race, no question about that," added Dennis.
"In the first stint he showed blistering pace and was comfortably quicker through the whole race."
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