AUSTRALIAN GP – Lando Norris holds off Max Verstappen to take a nine-tenths victory, admits a chaotic and accident-filled season opener
Lando Norris has taken back-to-back wins for the first time in his career in a chaotic, treacherous, accident-packed season-opening Australian Grand Prix. The McLaren driver held off world champion Max Verstappen in the closing stages to take a nine-tenths victory, in one of the most drama-filled season openers defined by making the right calls at the right time.
Norris appeared to clam the aborted start was only the start of a race which would be defined by crashes, and three safety cars as he threw down the gauntlet to fight for his first championship. Norris held off the Red Bull who was brought back into the fight for the win by the late safety car and began pushing the McLaren in the closing stages.
The McLaren driver led most of the race including through the final fifteen laps when the rain returned in the closing stages despite sliding off in the final sector and then immediately pitted. However, his teammate Oscar Piastri spun off and became trapped in the grass dropping to the back of the field before recovering to ninth finishing twenty seconds behind his teammate.
The error by Piastri had brought Verstappen into play after he dropped sixteen seconds behind in the middle part of the race during the switch to inters. After a third in-race Safety Car, Verstappen finished on Norris’ tail in the slippery closing laps but could not find a way past the Briton, who claimed the early title points advantage and ended Verstappen’s sixty-three race lead of the championship
George Russell finished the race third three seconds behind Verstappen and ahead of Kimi Antonelli who was reinstated to fourth after being given a penalty for an unsafety release. It was a decent recovery for the Italian even without the treacherous conditions, as he started the race from sixteenth making up eleven places.
It’s been a brilliant start to the season for Albon and Williams with the significant gains made in testing translating into a strong point haul despite teammate Carlos Sainz crashing out in the opening lap.
Antonelli and Ollie Bearman who was the last classified finisher were the only rookies to finish the race after Isack Hadjar, Jack Doohan and Gabriel Bortoletto all crashed out, joined by Liam Lawson in his first full season. Hadjar spun out at Ascari (Turn Two) on the formation lap forcing an aborted start and reducing the race to fifty-seven laps, and Doohan crashing on the opening lap along with Sainz in separate incidents.
Hadjar kickstarted what would be a baptism of fire for the rookies, the distraught Hadjar was consoled by Anthony Hamilton. Doohan is already under pressure from Franco Colapinto to retain the seat for the entire season.
Norris, who takes the first victory of the 2025 season: “It was amazing, it was a tough race, especially with Max [Verstappen] behind me, I was pushing especially the last two laps which was a little bit stressful but an amazing way to start the year. It was a tough one because we went off and made some big mistakes, it was just tricky conditions but these are the ones that are enjoyable, fun and unpredictable, but this time we got it right and I’m very happy.”
Verstappen, who finished second, “Yeah it was a difficult race, of course, but at the end, it was fun. Lando had a moment on entry of Turn Six, so he lost momentum there, so that’s why I got close and got DRS. I got close but it’s very hard to pass around here. It was fun, those last laps, pushing, at least when you’re fighting for the win. I’m just very happy to bring it home, score good points. This is a decent starting point for us.”
Piastri said “It’s obviously pretty disappointing at the moment, I feel like every lap apart from one I drove an incredibly strong race and it’s just a shame I don’t have the result to show for it. I don’t have anyone to blame but myself, it was probably a bit unfortunate to get stuck the way I did but it’s only myself who put me there, so obviously disappointed.”
Norris’s victory sees Verstappen’s over a thousandth days lead of the championship ended with twenty-nine points opportunities on the table.
Lance Stroll was sixth the Aston Martin was a second ahead of Nico Hulkenberg, on his return to Sauber he scored the teams best result since these regulations were introduced. It wasn’t only the rookies who were caught out Fernando Alonso, the most experienced driver of all time, crashed his Aston Martin at half distance.
Highlighting the treacherous conditions he put one of the wheels on the white lines, which sent him spinning the rear into the wall.
Ferrari will face big questions about strategy, Charles Leclerc eighth a second behind Hulkenberg and Lewis Hamilton tenth. Hamilton going into the final ten laps was leading as the final rain band moved in, Ferrari left him out later than the rest. That forced him and Leclerc to pit under the safety car before a series of crashes dropped them down to tenth and eighth.
Then on the restart, Leclerc spun at the end of Lakeside Drive (Turn Eleven) under the safety car, which cost him four positions, the Ferraris touching wheels lightly in the incident. Hamilton then lost a further place as Piastri fought back from a spin that had cost him second place in the late rain.
The drama cost Hamilton the chance to follow in Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso’s footsteps with ten laps to go, by taking victory on his Ferrari debut.
Hamilton told Sky Sports, “It was very tricky and went a lot worse than I thought that it would go. The car was really hard to drive today so I’m just grateful I kept it out of the wall because that’s where it wanted to go most of the time.”
“We try to but the information I got was that it was just a quick short shower and at the time it was only in the last corner so the rest of the track was dry so let’s keep us on track if that’s all that is coming but then more came.”
The race will again raise question about communication between Ferrari and drivers, that was characterised by discussion between Hamilton and engineer Riccardo Adami about when he should be speaking to him on the radio and about what.
Pierre Gasly finished the race eleventh the Alpine driver finishing four seconds behind Hamilton and ahead of his former teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Esteban Ocon. Ocon was seven seconds ahead of Haas teammate Bearman, who had a clean race after crashing out in similar conditions in Sao Paulo.
Related
- Australian GP – Qualifying Result
- AUSTRALIAN GP – Lando Norris beats Oscar Piastri by nearly a tenth to take pole for season opener
- AUSTRALIAN GP – Charles Leclerc fastest by just over a tenth from Oscar Piastri in second practice
- AUSTRALIAN GP – Lando Norris fastest by a tenth and a half in first practice
- Welcome to the Australian Grand Prix
- PRIXVIEW – Australian Grand Prix