Sunday's rainswept Belgian Grand Prix will go down in history as Formula One's shortest ever race, and also as a leading contender for the most farcical.

Just calling it a race takes a mighty stretch of the imagination — a delay of more than three hours with crowds enduring cold and rain to see a few processional laps behind the safety car in heavy spray and with no overtaking.

Officially, the action lasted all of three minutes and 27 seconds with Red Bull's Max Verstappen the winner — a result effectively decided in Saturday's qualifying.