Kimi Antonelli won the Spanish Grand Prix for Mercedes becoming the first victor at Formula One’s newest circuit, the Madring in Madrid. In a decidedly prosaic affair for the track’s debut, he beat the Red Bull of Max Verstappen into second place and McLaren’s Lando Norris into third in a race where, after the opening lap, there were only four on-track passes and none of them at the sharp end.

Charles Leclerc was fourth for Ferrari and George Russell fifth for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton’s title hopes were all but ended when he was forced to retire with a brake problem on lap six.

As many had feared, the Madring’s lack of opportunity for overtaking defined the race which had appeared to be in Norris’s hands once the defending world champion had held his lead from pole. However, he was unlucky with the timing of a virtual safety car (VSC) and when McLaren opted to pit him just as the VSC was revoked. It cost him track position from which he could make no progress as the leaders circled line astern, unable to close or even hint at a pass.

Some good fortune for Antonelli then, but he also executed perfectly and with his eighth win this season has now extended his lead over the second-placed Russell to 81 points. Hamilton is third, 101 back, while Norris is 106 behind in fourth, with nine meetings remaining.

The circuit, which sits around the Institución Ferial de Madrid convention centre area between the centre of the city and the airport, is hosting the first meeting in Madrid since 1981 when Gilles Villeneuve won for Ferrari at the Jarama circuit and had at best an inauspicious opening that many had seen coming.

Even before the weekend began, drivers had questioned whether overtaking would be possible just from their experience on simulators. As they took to the track their instincts proved all too prescient. The high-speed layout is compromised by braking zones angled in to many of the corners. It requires drivers to brake while turning in, removing the option of putting a car alongside by out-braking an opponent, allowing for only one line into the corner which is easily defended by the leading car.

Verstappen who had been outspoken in his criticism of the design and predicted a procession, had said on Saturday the track designers had made mistakes.

“You can’t overtake,” he said. “They need to learn that it should never be that you have to steer, that you have to combine under braking, because it doesn’t allow any kind of overtaking.

“In terms of track design, I think it can be better. Input from drivers in the future on track design can also help a lot. I know they will always come back to you and say: ‘Yeah, but the space.’ But that’s BS. There’s always a way to find an overtaking opportunity around a track.”

Norris held his lead on the dash to turn one and seemed to have the race in hand until it turned on lap 14 when the VSC was called to deal with Lance Stroll’s Aston which had gone into the barriers with the Canadian also experiencing a brake problem.

Antonelli dived into the pits for a cheap stop and new tyres but Norris had already passed the pit lane entrance when the car was called. He was called in at the end of the lap but the timing was disastrous. The VSC ended just before he was called in and his stop was slow as well, a full seven seconds.

McLaren could have kept him out but opted to still take the stop under full racing conditions. Norris crawled out, his lead gone and down to fifth place, with Antonelli now behind Leclerc who had not stopped.

Norris remained very quick but his track position had gone and while Leclerc, who did not stop, would then lead for the majority of the race, Antonelli, Verstappen and Norris circulated knowing they would pass him when he did.

He did so on lap 48 and the leaders duly continued their circuits to the flag, with Norris having his best chance of the entire race in the closing laps as he attacked Verstappen while lapping some back markers. Verstappen maintained second with Norris believing the Dutchman had left the track to hold the place, the stewards decided he had not.

As lively a moment as the entire race had seen after the opening lap, while Antonelli closed out in control. A driver who will not care at all that it was his least entertaining win of the season.