You can keep the red flag flying here! That seems to be official policy in Formula One right now, and its consequence was a bonkers Australian Grand Prix won by Max Verstappen.

It might sound like an anti-climax that the event concluded under a safety car two-and-a-half hours after it began in the Melbourne sun, but that wouldn’t be the truth, the whole truth or anything like the truth.

Smashes, flying wheels, jeopardy, confusion, tension — all combined to underscore F1’s uncanny knack of conjuring something special when it is needed and least expected, such as after Red Bull’s one-sided dominance of this young season.

Yes, for the majority of the afternoon Verstappen was simply cruising in front, sitting on a 10-second lead over eventual runner-up Lewis Hamilton in machinery that operated as if it had come from another planet.

That was all thrown into the air as the race took on chaotic dimensions that resulted in three safety cars, three red flags, and four starts or restarts.

The craziest madcappery started to unfold on lap 54 of 58 when Kevin Magnussen banged his Haas into the wall. His right rear tyre was sent flying. This brought out the second of the red flags on lap 55 — we’ll get back to the first later.There was a 15-minute delay as wheel-rim debris was cleared.

The restart was extraordinary. Chaos ensued. Williams’s Logan Sargeant and AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries crashed out. The Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon gave their bosses a major bill with a big shunt. 

Sergio Perez mowed the grass. Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was pinged by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who picked up a five-point penalty, which he later described as the ‘biggest disgrace for years’. Well, it was certainly harsh and condemned him to finish 12th and last. Alonso’s team-mate Lance Stroll ran into the sand but dug himself out.

This was in the space of a couple of helter-skelter corners, in which Verstappen, making his best start of the afternoon, had held off Hamilton. Debris was strewn here and there. Cue another red flag.

Was the race over, everyone wondered? Fifty seven of the 58 laps had been completed and the formation lap back round to the grid required for yet another restart would have clicked the meter to 58. 

Restarting the race for a fourth time would, therefore, mean an impossible 59 laps, one more than the laws permitted. Delay and confusion reigned. The crowd performed a Mexican wave as the FIA scratched their heads and thumbed their rulebook.

After a long delay: a decision. The cars would merely parade behind the safety car in the order they had restarted earlier, prior to the carnage. This final tour of the Albert Park track would allow the chequered flag to be waved, the 58th lap having been honoured, the race finished sedately.

The ruling to revert to their pre-restart places was a gift to Alonso. He had fallen back in his skirmish with Sainz but restarted in third. That is where he finished.

Now, back to the beginning.

George Russell, starting second, made a brilliant getaway, taking pole-man Verstappen on the opening corner. It was an excellent move in a suddenly much-improved Mercedes, though Verstappen was unusually tardy. Hamilton then strong-armed his way past the world champion at turn three.

‘He pushed me off the track,’ complained Verstappen, who went on to extend his championship lead to 15 points. ‘I was ahead at the apex.’ No action was taken or needed.

Anyway, Mercedes were at the front. Game on. The two Silver Arrows could now act in unison to thwart the inevitable Verstappen fightback. Verstappen, meanwhile, was without team-mate Perez, who started at the back after an accident in qualifying before finishing fifth.

But it was not so simple. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, chancing his arm on the outside, was caught by Stroll. The safety car was deployed.

When the action restarted, Alex Albon lost control of his Williams on turn six and out came the safety car again. Now, Mercedes made a maverick call — bringing in Russell for a change of tyres. Why surrender the lead and put him into traffic on his return?

Nobody else at the top stopped, and the leader was surely the last man who needed to gamble. It also condemned Hamilton to fight Verstappen on his own.

Fate made it worse: the safety car was exchanged for the first of the red flags. Into the pits they peeled, including Russell in seventh place.

The race restarted from a standing start after a 16-minute hiatus, and the Mercedes man did well to climb up to fifth. His team-mate Hamilton held Verstappen ably at bay. But Verstappen had no need to take risks there, such was his advantage, as he proved with his decisive move on lap 12, zooming past Hamilton as if he were a milk float. He produced a flash of sizzling pace and then he switched on Jazz FM.

Russell’s day went from good to bad to worse when his engine blew on lap 17. ‘When it’s not your day, it’s not your day,’ he bemoaned.

As for red flags being waved so liberally, it seems a deliberate change of policy. Some will say it panders to a Netflix audience, an Americanisation, and that purity is a victim. Perhaps so, but it serves up drama.