The inaugural Madring grand prix was ok, the new venue offering some interesting aspects such as the long and banked turn 12 and testing high-speed sections between continuous and unrelenting walls and barriers.

It all had a feeling of work in progress. We know they lost a lot of time in the build process with particularly bad weather, and as a temporary race track adjacent to the international airport, and effectively racing around the Madrid equivalent of the Birmingham NEC, it had its challenges.

The pitlane and paddock were simply vast, creating some logistical challenges for all and, much more importantly, the track layout was not conducive to overtaking, to say the least.

As the cars swung at high speed from side to side through some of the more tortuous sections, and with a reasonably fast corner onto the not especially long pit straight, along with an energy dense layout meaning hybrid batteries would be replenished far more easily than on the four high speed and long straights just a week earlier in Monza, the only way to overtake was a highly risky lunge, or wait for rivals to make a mistake.

It's not as challenging to overtake as Monaco, but not that far short either. Given the extremely long pit lane which feeds back onto the inside of turn three, it took a lengthy 25 seconds to pit under green-flag conditions.

However, under a virtual or actual safety car, due to the speeds and geography of the layout, there was a chunky 12-second advantage in pitting under the safety car while rivals are travelling much more slowly. And that decided who would win the race.

The first-lap Madring melee

With so little circuit knowledge, especially for Lando Norris who had missed virtually a full practice session with car gremlins, and for others who had had sizeable shunts along the way, this meant that all three available tyre compounds were represented on the grid.

On the front row, pole sitter Norris, after a sensational qualifying lap, and fellow front-row sitter Kimi Antonelli had medium compounds. Max Verstappen was on soft compound tyres, like Lewis Hamilton. Others like Charles Leclerc's Ferrari and George Russell's Mercedes were on the hard compound tyres.

And that's how they set off. Norris got away reasonably well and aggressively covered off Antonelli. The young Italian would fail to slow enough, and bypass both of the two early chicanes, hitting the throttle hard through the run-off areas.

This meant he would clearly have to give back to Norris the lead he now had, but Verstappen read this very well, and using his speed, guile, and soft compound tyres, he would not let Antonelli simply hand the place back to Norris without helping himself to second place.

However, in the melee early after the start, Verstappen too had a straight run through a chicane, in his view to avoid a shunt with Hamilton.

In the view of the stewards however he had gained an unfair advantage and, much to Max's chagrin, his team told him, before the stewards did, to hand the place to Lewis which by now necessarily included Antonelli too.

It probably cost Max a victory in the end.

How the Virtual Safety Car turned the race Antonelli's way

Antonelli is definitely getting the rub of the green in this phase of the season, although it must be said that his speed and consistency have enabled him to make sure he doesn't waste these golden opportunities, and on lap 14 he would be handed another.

Norris had been flying out front, looking very assured. But when Lance Stroll lost his Aston Martin under braking and became marooned down one of the few and short run-off areas, it looked reasonably certain that there would be a virtual safety car to recover that.

Norris was fast approaching the pit-lane entry, the team didn't want to pit him on simply the chance of a safety car rather than the certainty, given how hard it was to overtake even significantly slower traffic if they didn't pit.

Just as the race director gave the VSC order, Norris had passed the pit entry. But his lead was over four seconds and, critically, Mercedes did have time to pit Antonelli. If only Lando hadn't been in such great form…

Ferrari kept Leclerc out on his hard tyres, the relatively early safety car hurting his strategy. But clearing away stricken cars had been rather slow all event and might, just might, Norris be able to complete another lap at safety car speed and still get a cheap pit stop in?

Not at all. It went green and full racing speed when he was two corners from the pit-lane entry, and he then had to navigate the whole pit lane whist his main rivals were flat out. And to cap it all, McLaren delivered him a seven-second pit stop rather than the usual two seconds.

Undeterred, Lando set about catching up to Verstappen and Antonelli in fine fashion.

Leclerc would impressively lead until he pitted on lap 48 to park his tired hard tyres. If that sounds long, a very unimpressed Pierre Gasly was left out on track by his Alpine team for 55 of the 57 laps.

This all left Antonelli in the lead, but with Verstappen pushing hard as Norris was catching him, the three leaders were close together in the final stages.

But there was no way past, and having led his 13th straight F1 race, Antonelli would now lead the championship by 81 points from his team-mate Russell. It's the fifth consecutive race where the 20-year-old Italian has extended his points lead.

Mercedes power units also won their 251st race in F1 history, tieing with Ferrari. Impressive numbers all round.

Russell in the other Merc was mighty fast too and would catch Leclerc but had to be content with following him home in fifth place, being a relative outlier on a two-stop strategy by pitting on laps 14 and 28.

It simply won't fall into place for George, he's not catching any breaks this season so far.

Sadly, Hamilton's Ferrari had brake issues in the opening laps and he would retire for the first time since Brazil last season. This meant Liam Lawson, standing in for the injured Isack Hadjar, grabbed eight more points in sixth place for Red Bull to go with Verstappen's excellent 18 for second place, in a car which wasn't second fastest.

The VSC rule debate and expectations of 2027 Madring change

Antonelli and Verstappen were both immediately magnanimous post-race when declaring it Norris' victory without the unfortunate virtual safety car timing. Should a driver lose a race because another driver has made a mistake or had a car failure?

What goes around comes around in the course of a season and even a career, but it felt rather like a robbery on Sunday.

Some racing categories temporarily close the pit lane except for emergency repairs (or emergency refuelling if they have that), but that can all get a bit confusing and congested too in the pit lane and is still not equal for everyone.

One solution might be to ensure that if a virtual safety is deployed, then it must stay in place for at least a full lap of all the runners to keep it fairer. Although, of course, that costs green flag full-speed racing time, which is what people want to see in the grandstands and on their devices.

By next year I hope and expect that the Madring will have some track layout changes to improve overtaking, a more condensed and practical set up behind the scenes, and better signage for all. It has all the ingredients to make a credible contribution to the F1 season.

Racing on a Saturday! The F1 season continues live on Sky Sports F1 as the Azerbaijan Grand Prix kicks off a triple-header of races from September 24-26, with the Baku race taking place on a Saturday. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime

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