Over the weekend Max Verstappen, in a high-profile GT3-class debut, won the ninth round of the Nürburgring Langstrecken-Serie (NLS) with seeming ease.

Naturally social media went mad. In fairness, most posts were well-informed, with a sensible and deserved tone of adulation for an impressive feat. However, the number of people (perhaps introduced to motorsport by a certain Netflix show) credulously cooing over the Formula 1 world champion's ability to outbrake an AT3-class Mk7 Golf while at the wheel of a cutting-edge Ferrari 296 GT3 was confounding.

Do these people live in a parallel reality where that is possible only because of Verstappen's god-given talent? Frighteningly, they might. Or are they just wilfully ignorant of the facts? 

But I’m not here to complain. This is a fortuitous and unforeseen development for a class of racing that I love – one that gets shaded by fruitier sports prototype racers in the Hypercar class and F1 itself.

By showing up in a GT3 car and putting on an exhibition in something so different to his Red Bull RB21, Verstappen has drawn more eyeballs to the category than was previously imaginable. His adaptation to everything from ABS to the comparatively huge weight transfer and instability, not to mention the traffic-management element, was dazzling.