There's always excitement when a new racetrack is added to a season – what's it going to be like? Which celebrities are going to endorse it? Will it provide a new dimension of racing to the season? Well, readers, in the case of the Madring, I think we were all left wanting a lot more than we got.

I saw a statistic this morning that there were fewer overtakes than at Monaco this year, which is very damning indeed for a track that was purpose-built rather than sticking to the confines of a microscopic city. Why are there so many corners, and such a limited number of straights providing overtaking opportunities? And in terms of the spectacle of being a capital city race, visually it was extremely lacking. Other races, for example Las Vegas or Baku, feature huge landmarks or ridiculous casinos in the former's case, and thus provide a dramatic feeling to the track. Madrid? Nah, let's feature none of that and make it look like any other track, but just make it temporary.

Anyway, I think I have expressed my feelings on the track itself enough (I didn't like it), so let's move on to the racing that actually occurred.

Due to me sunning myself in Majorca until Saturday evening, I didn't catch most of the build-up to the race, but from viewing social media I can see practice sessions provided a lot of limit-pushing and crashes, and qualifying, like Monza the week before, was a close-fought battle, and Lando Norris came out on top by mere hundredths of a second (0.011 to be precise) ahead of Kimi Antonelli. McLaren seems to be having a resurgence, which as a fanboy is very pleasing to see. Unfortunately for the Spanish fans, both countrymen were eliminated in Q1.

So, the race. The first few corners were chaotic up front, with both Kimi and Max missing the first chicane, with Kimi doing the right thing and giving the place back to Lando, and Max being Max for a while but eventually following team orders and giving the place back to Lewis (and Kimi). Further back, Oscar and George clashed, causing Oscar to have a damaged front wing for the entire race – how this wasn't deemed dangerous by the stewards is interesting, as seeing it flap around on the onboard was concerning, but again, as a fanboy, I was okay with it.

The next major event was Hamilton losing his brakes and falling back through the field, until he eventually (a lap too late in my opinion) was told to retire the car. This was sad for a couple of reasons, not only because he has been having a great season and seeing Lewis on form is brilliant for the sport, but also because he was the last driver to have completed every racing lap so far this year.

Now for the next event, I will try my best to put my impartial hat on. Lance Stroll decided to do Lance Stroll things and went off track, and the car needed to be recovered. Whilst the race director decided what to do in terms of Safety Car/VSC/Red Flag, Lando, who had pulled a commanding 5-second lead, went past the pit entry, and immediately afterwards (or 5 seconds, whatever) the VSC was enabled, allowing Kimi, Max and George to pit and get the advantage of a shorter pit – frustrating for Lando, of course, but these things do happen. Still, there was time for Lando to pit and Lance's car had not been recovered yet; however, the track went green just before Lando approached the pit entry – the luck could not have been worse. Well, it could, as the pit crew also fumbled his tyre change, which added another 5 seconds or so to his disadvantage. Now, my impartiality hat may have slipped off there, so I will say that McLaren could have reduced the bad luck here by thinking preemptively that some kind of safety car situation was imminent, and pulling Lando in, and of course the pit stop itself was the team's fault too, but all of this effectively took away Lando's opportunity to win, which, considering he was probably the fastest man out there, is a real shame.

From there on, there were occasions of close racing – at one point the top 4 were all extremely close and the new regulations helped to maintain that – but otherwise it did become a processional race, and as it drew to a close Kimi Antonelli was declared the winner. There has been a lot of "chatter" online (I need to stop going onto certain social media applications formerly known as Twitter) that Kimi is having the luckiest WDC campaign, with situations happening, like with the VSC here, that benefit him. But I have to defend Kimi, because firstly a large part of F1 is luck; the greatness comes from how you deal with the pressure when the luck arises – other drivers buckle, make careless mistakes or squander their advantage in these situations – Kimi absorbs the pressure, and let's remember that he is only in his second season and is 20 years old. He deserves every ounce of success he gets, and with the current trajectory of the season he will be the champion, and quite rightly.

Anyway, what else happened? Sainz had a shocking weekend on home soil, with several questionable moves resulting in a time penalty and an eventual retirement, which is a real shame for the home crowd. Liam Lawson had a much better weekend driving for Red Bull, bringing his car home in 6th and actually being able to support Max in the race. Franco Colapinto has been showing in the last few races that he does have what it takes, securing another 7th place ahead of arguably a much faster McLaren of Oscar Piastri.

I think that's all I really have to say about the race weekend – well, apart from when Lando refused to give up his Coca-Cola in the cool-down room, which was pretty funny.

I really, really hope that the event organisers spend time rethinking the track for next year, as it has so much potential, but in its current state it adds nothing to the calendar, and ultimately when a track like Barcelona exists, it's a real shame if it carries on in its current state.