I don’t think the officials had any interest in ensuring that one specific driver won out over another but given all of the build up to this weekend and the obvious goals of Liberty, they will have been under pressure to put on a show, and a procession behind the safety car wasn’t going to cut it.
It’s clear that for the future there needs to be a change to safety car procedures to ensure that the race finishes at race speed, whether that’s by adding laps or by having an enforced red if they are behind the safety car with a couple of laps to go.
As for this weekend, once it became apparent that the championship was going to be determined by whether we had a restart or not the officials were on a hiding to nothing, they were going to take flak whatever the outcome.
Regardless of the legitimacy of any merit the Mercedes appeals might have I can’t see the powers that be allowing them to stand as dragging this on is just going to make the sport look worse. Just don’t be surprised if something happens over the next season or two that redresses the balance.