Formula 1 fans in the UK who woke up just in time for the scheduled start time of the Japanese Grand Prix were left baffled when they sleepily turned on their TVs. Because even as their newly-turned-forward clocks hit 6am, there was no sign of the Suzuka race getting under way.

Some thought they might have been experiencing a problem with the Sky Sports feed they were watching. “Guys, is everyone else on a huge delay or is it just me?” one puzzled fan asked on social media. Another wrote: “We should have started by now, but I’m just getting the F1 intro on the screen.”

There was a clear reason for the delay, but it was not at all obvious for those who had chosen to woke up just in time for the race start – while the overnight switch to British Summer Time only added to the confusion. But there was nothing wrong with anyone’s clocks. Instead, it was the barriers at the Suzuka circuit which were the problem.

One specific stretch of barriers in particular, which had suffered damage in a crash that had taken place in a support event race earlier on Sunday. Around 45 minutes before the scheduled start time of the F1 race, an FIA spokesperson confirmed that it was going to cause a delay to the pre-Grand Prix procedure.

They said: “Start of formation lap will be delayed due to barrier repairs ongoing at Turn 12 after an incident in a support catergory. We will provide further updates on a new start time for formation lap. Pit lane open timing for reconnaissance laps will also be delayed.” Six minutes later, they confirmed the formation lap would take place at 2:10pm locally – 6:10am in the UK – which was 10 minutes after the original start time.

The formation lap was indeed able to take place at that time and there were no further delays to the action prior to lights out. The extra bit of waiting certainly did not put McLaren off, especially Oscar Piastri who had failed to start both previous Grands Prix held this season but who enjoyed a lightning-quick launch off the line at Suzuka to spring from third on the grid into the race lead.

Lando Norris also got away well and moved up to third from fifth, while the Ferrari cars also enjoyed what is becoming their customary good start off the line in these new cars. But it was a difficult getaway for Kimi Antonelli whose reaction time from pole position was good, but he then suffered a huge amount of wheelspin in the second phase which saw five other cars sweep past.

Crucially, one of them was his team-mate George Russell and that meant the young Italian was now likely going to have to overtake his team-mate if he was to have a chance of securing back-to-back victories after his maiden F1 win last time out in China.