Jenson Button says "respect and understanding" helped Formula One avoid GP2-style carnage at the Grand Prix of Europe in Baku.

Azerbaijan's inaugural grand prix passed without incident at the challenging Baku City Circuit despite the likes of Lewis Hamilton, Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez hitting a wall during the weekend. F1's feeder series GP2 had two races which descended into chaos, with Sunday morning's sprint featuring several farcical Safety Car restarts which led to a one-round ban for Honda protégé Nobuharu Matsushita.

Button does not think it is surprising that F1 did not follow suit because its drivers are a bit more matured than the youngsters trying to impress in GP2.

"We saw incidents in the feeder series but that's because they're feeder series," he said. "To get up to F1 you have to be very good in other categories and stay out of trouble.

"Feeder series is all about trying to impress to get the jump to Formula One, so it's completely understandable that there are more incidents, whereas in Formula One there's more respect and a bit more of an understanding. But it was actually a fun race and I enjoyed it."

Many teams would have anticipated a Safety Car when drawing up strategy for either driver and many, including Nico Rosberg, were stunned that one was not required for 53 laps. However, Rosberg admitted he doubted whether anyone would keep it out of the wall when he easing his way to a comfortable victory through lapped traffic.

"Amazing. I have no idea [why]. I'm surprised. I was expecting a Safety Car at any moment and I was overtaking some back markers and they were all over the place, locking tyres and everything. I was like 'guys, come on keep it easy, don't mess up now please'."