McLaren’s Lando Norris survived a late off-track excursion, then prevailed in a six-lap sprint to the finish to win a rain-filled, chaotic F1 Australian Grand Prix, fending off a hard-charging Max Verstappen in the Red Bull to cross the line with less than a second to spare.
Although Norris started from pole and led most of the race — and seemed to confirm that McLaren will be the car to beat in 2025 — the changing conditions and late safety car didn’t make it easy.
“A tough race, especially with Max behind me, I was pushing. The last two laps were a little bit stressful — I’m not going to lie — but an amazing way to start the year,” said Norris. “A tough one because we went off, made some big mistakes. I went through the gravel, a lot of damage. Just tricky conditions, but these are the ones that are enjoyable, fun, and unpredictable. This time, we got it right and ended up on top. So, I’m very happy.”
Norris almost threw it away near the end of the race after going off, along with his teammate Oscar Piastri, and ceding the lead to Verstappen, but he regained control after the Red Bull driver rolled the dice on slicks in the rain but couldn’t make the strategy work.
Despite the tantalizing mistake by Norris, Verstappen felt that second turned out to be the best he could do against the quicker McLaren.
“They went off, so it was a bit like a panic, like, ‘Oh, I need to box’ but I stayed out,” said Verstappen. “If I’d boxed with Lando, it would have been P2. If I’d boxed the next lap, it would have been P2. And the lap that I did box, I was also P2. So, we tried something else — it might have worked. In a way, it didn’t work, but we didn’t lose any position, so it’s fine.”
In the end, Norris finished 0.895 seconds ahead of Verstappen, with Mercedes’ George Russel third, 8.481 seconds back. Russell’s rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli finished fourth, with Williams’ Alex Albon rounding out the Top-5. Antonelli crossed the line fourth but got bumped to fifth after a five-second penalty for unsafe release but saw the decision later overturned to move him back to fourth.
Although the double Top-4 for Mercedes came due to mistakes by its rivals, Russell ran a strong race and looked to be the best of the rest, behind McLaren and Red Bull, in Melbourne.
“It was pretty clear from the beginning that these guys [McLaren and Red Bull] were too quick for us, and we were quicker than Ferrari, so I was kind of in no man’s land,” said Russell, whose team left Australia tied with McLaren in the constructors standings at 27 points.
“I made a decision quite early on that the best way to approach this race was just to bring it home,” he continued. “If I risked it more, there was no extra reward on the table because they were just so far ahead. Pleased to come home with this result because I don’t think this is probably our strongest circuit.”
The race began under wet conditions after showers drenched Melbourne in the lead-up to the race, with the drivers going to the grid on intermediate tires, but with no significant rain falling as the lights went out.
Norris got a good start from pole to stay ahead of the pack, while Verstappen got the jump on Piastri in second and used an excellent drive out of Turn 2 to overtake him on the run to Turn 3. The safety car emerged at the end of the lap after Alpine rookie Jack Doohan put a wheel on a painted white line and spun into the wall five turns into his F1 debut.
The race went back to green on Lap 8 and Verstappen seemed to be able to stay with the faster McLarens in the wet conditions but then out-braked himself at Turn 11, nine laps later, to allow Piastri to re-take second. The two McLarens then pulled away from Verstappen, as the track dried, and built about a 15-second gap to the Red Bull driver by the halfway point of the 57-lap race.
Meanwhile, Piastri began to pressure his teammate for the lead before being told to hold position by the team until the track dried. The team rescinded the order a couple of laps later just before Fernando Alonso got a wheel on the gravel in Turn 6 and hit the wall on Lap 34, bringing out the second safety car.
All of the remaining cars stopped for slicks before the safety car period ended, with the two McLarens going for hard Pirelli tires, while Verstappen took a set of mediums. Norris easily kept the lead on the Lap 42 restart but both McLarens went off just before pit entry, two laps later.
While Norris continued and dove into the pits for intermediate tires, Piastri spent almost a lap spinning his tires as he tried to extricate himself from the slippery grass. Norris dropped to seventh, while Verstappen gambled and stayed out on his mediums to take the lead. When Piastri finally got going, he pitted for tires, but dropped to 15th.
“It’s a very stressful moment because it all could have gone wrong there,” said Norris. “If I stayed on track, I think Max probably would have passed me because he was on the medium and probably in a better window than I had with the hards. But we boxed, and then half the track was completely dry and half of it was wet. I think that’s why I struggled a bit at the end of the race. My Inters were just a little destroyed from when it was still dry.”
The safety car emerged a third time on Lap 47 after both Liam Lawson and rookie Gabriel Bortoleto in the Kick Sauber spun in yet more rain. That saw the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Scuderia newcomer Lewis Hamilton tumble down the leaderboard after staying out on slicks and needing to pit under the safety car. Up until that point, the pair looked to be in a position to take a Top-5 finish. Leclerc ended the day eighth, while Hamilton scored a single point in his Ferrari debut for 10th.
The driver Hamilton replaced at Ferrari, Carlos Sainz, also experienced a tough day with his new Williams outfit after crashing out of the grand prix on the opening lap. On the other hand, Canadian Lance Stroll ended up benefiting from all the carnage, finishing sixth after spending most of the race out of the points.
The race turned out to be a difficult one for the rookies in the field, with Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli crossing the line as the best of the bunch, but only due to Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, the two Ferraris and VCARB’s Yuki Tsunoda trying to stay on slicks when the late shower came. Oliver Bearman drove to 14th in the Haas while VCARB rookie Isack Hadjar failed to make the start after crashing on the formation lap.
Tsunoda appeared to make a pretty strong statement that Red Bull erred when it picked Liam Lawson for the seat next to Verstappen. The VCARB driver put in an impressive performance at the front until the tire strategy mistake ruined his day and dropped him to 12th, while Lawson struggled all day until he crashed.
