How virtual safety car cost Norris win - and should F1 change rules?

Lando Norris says he was "insanely unlucky" to lose what seemed like a certain win in the Spanish Grand Prix because of the timing of a virtual safety car.

McLaren's Norris was leading comfortably when the VSC was called, seconds after he had passed the pit lane entry.

That allowed Mercedes' Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull's Max Verstappen to pit under the VSC, saving time, while the caution period ended before Norris could make it around to the pits again.

Of the VSC, Norris said: "It is a rule that should not define a whole race."

"I was the only one on the whole grid that didn't get the chance to do the pit stop," he said. "That's just unfortunate.

"There's been plenty of times where I've gained from it in the past and times where I've lost from it, and it's racing, but never when fighting for a win.

"So, it's probably one of the first times a win has been lost simply because of it."

After taking pole position with a lap his team principal Andrea Stella described as "a masterpiece", Norris was leading Antonelli by more than six seconds after 13 laps in Madrid.

He had just passed the pit entry at the end of lap 14 when a VSC was called because Lance Stroll's Aston Martin had stopped in the run-off area at Turn 20, while Antonelli and Verstappen were far enough behind to pit.

The VSC, which controls all cars to a specified maximum speed, then ended shortly before Norris completed the next lap, at the end of which he pitted.

Because a stop under the VSC costs 11 seconds less race time than one under green-flag conditions, Norris lost sufficient time that Antonelli and Verstappen were able to pass him.

Norris lost a further five seconds because of problems with his two right-hand side tyres at the stop and emerged from the pits more than 15 seconds behind Antonelli and more than nine adrift of Verstappen.

He caught the Red Bull before the end of the race but as overtaking was virtually impossible on the new Madring street circuit, he was stuck in third place.

Race-winner Antonelli, who extended his championship lead to 81 points, acknowledged Norris' bad fortune. "If I have to be realistic and honest, today we didn't deserve to win," he said. "Lando deserved to win, and so I think our result was probably P2 or even P3."

Antonelli wins as Norris loses out under virtual safety car

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The VSC is a system by which the cars are forced to drive to a specified lap-time delta while a hazard on track is cleared.

It is used in certain circumstances in favour of deploying the actual safety car, usually when the hazard can be cleared relatively quickly, because it interferes less with the race and minimises the time lost under caution.

A physical safety car involves a modified high-performance road car entering the track and having the field line up behind it.

The various protocols around its operation mean a safety-car period usually goes on for several laps, while in this case the VSC was in operation for less than a single lap.

Why was it a problem for Norris?

The short duration of the VSC in this case was exactly why Norris was railing against the situation.

Every other driver in the field had the opportunity to decide whether to pit or not - the only driver not given that option was Norris.

The pit lane entry is before the final corner at the Madring, and Norris was in the last corner when it was called.

The VSC ended when Norris was in Turn 21, the corner before the pit entry, on lap 15. Antonelli, having stopped, was behind him in Turn 19.

On most circuits, Norris would have had a chance to pass Verstappen and perhaps even do the same to Antonelli before the end, given his pace advantage on the day, but as Antonelli put it: "In the race, you're just stuck behind."

Norris was withering in his criticism of the track layout, saying: "I don't know how someone looks at this design and goes, 'Mint.'" But he did say there was "a lot of opportunity" to improve it for next year.

Could McLaren have done anything differently?

After the race, one question asked of McLaren was whether pitting on the following lap was the best idea, or should Norris have stayed out?

Norris said: "I had to come in at the end of the lap because it was the only chance.

"It was still effectively some pit loss, (but) the fact that everyone's kind of on colder tyres and you're still minimising the pit loss.

"The medium tyre (on which Norris had started the race) was destroyed and the hard tyre (to which Antonelli and Verstappen switched) was amazing.