Australian GP: Lando Norris pips Max Verstappen to first F1 2025 win in wet chaos with Lewis Hamilton 10th on Ferrari debut
McLaren's Lando Norris leads F1's world championship for the first time after dramatic and impressive season-opening win in rain-hit Melbourne, but team-mate Oscar Piastri only ninth after costly late spin; Lewis Hamilton was 10th on Ferrari debut after team's slick-tyre gamble backfired
Sunday 16 March 2025 14:03, UK
Lando Norris just held off Max Verstappen to make the perfect start to his 2025 F1 world championship challenge by impressively winning a chaotic season-opening Australian Grand Prix featuring on-off rain and numerous crashes.
Norris, the pre-season title favourite, had led the majority of the 58 laps from team-mate Oscar Piastri at a slippery and blustery Albert Park as McLaren's qualifying dominance transferred into the rain-hit race, but his win appeared in jeopardy when the return of wet weather for the closing 15 laps triggered a fresh round of chaos.
Both McLarens briefly slid off the track in the final sector, but while Norris successfully rounded the next turn and immediately headed to the pits for intermediate tyres, home favourite Piastri spun into the grass and dropped to the back of the field.
Piastri eventually finished ninth, just ahead of Lewis Hamilton who endured a difficult debut race for Ferrari in 10th.
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World champion Verstappen, who had lost touch with the McLarens by 16 seconds in the middle of the race having initially overtaken Piastri on the first lap before a subsequent error let the Australian back through, briefly inherited the lead for Red Bull but pitted for intermediates himself two laps later as the rain only intensified.
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 ended his Dutch rival's 63-race sequence at the head of the Drivers' Championship dating back to mid-2022.
"That's one of the great all-time drives from Lando Norris there," said Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle of the McLaren driver's fifth career win.
"In the most challenging conditions, with the restarts and so much pressure."
George Russell took third for Mercedes to earn a podium place that had not looked likely for the majority of the race.
New rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli staged a fine recovery drive from his disappointing Q1 exit on Saturday to take what became a reinstated fourth place.
The 18-year-old Italian originally finished three seconds ahead of Alex Albon on the road thanks to a late overtake of the Williams but was relegated back behind him due to a five-second time penalty imposed by stewards for what they initially ruled was an unsafe release by Mercedes' crew in the pit lane into the path of Nico Hulkenberg's Sauber.
But after submitting a right of review request to challenge the decision after the race with new video evidence from Antonelli's rollhoop camera, stewards agreed with Mercedes' argument that no offence had actually been committed and duly reversed the decision.
Fifth, though, still represented Albon's best result for Williams and the much-improved team's highest finish since 2021.
But it proved a tough day for Mercedes' former star, Hamilton, who finished with a single point after a challenging and, at times, frustrating first outing in the famous red of Ferrari.
Running in his qualifying position of eighth for most of a race mostly characterised by discussion with his new race engineer Riccardo Adami about when the Italian should be speaking to him on the radio, and about what, Hamilton suddenly briefly found himself in the lead with 10 laps to go as the leaders pitted for intermediates and Ferrari rolled the strategy dice by keeping their cars out on slicks in a gamble that conditions would improve again.
But, passed by the intermediate-shod Norris just before the Safety Car was called, Ferrari soon realised they had made a mistake amid the worsening weather despite their now higher-running positions and belatedly called their two cars in, dropping them back down to the foot of the top 10.
Charles Leclerc eventually took eighth after passing Hamilton - who had got ahead of his new team-mate for the first time this weekend on slicks when Leclerc spun on lap 44 - at the restart with the Briton then relegated to 10th on the final lap by the recovering Piastri.
While Fernando Alonso crashed out to cause the race's second of three Safety Cars, Lance Stroll kept it on the road to take a strong sixth for Aston Martin - the Canadian's first points since last July and matching his Melbourne finish from 2024.
Hulkenberg, meanwhile, took an unexpected seventh on his second debut for Sauber, their best result in almost three years and already two points more than they managed in the whole of last season.
Antonelli aside, it proved an extremely tough baptism for F1 2025's six-strong rookie class.
Setting the tone for the wild race, Racing Bulls' Isack Hadjar crashed on his maiden F1 formation lap - a incident which appeared to bring the 20-year-old Frenchman to tears inside his crash helmet as he walked away from his damaged car and back to the paddock, where he was consoled in classy fashion by Anthony Hamilton, Lewis' father.
Alpine's Jack Doohan then hit the wall within six corners of the race starting after being caught out in the spray, while Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto and Red Bull's Liam Lawson - who endured a wretched first weekend at the team - spun out in the late rain shower.
Britain's Oliver Bearman did finish for Haas but was the last classified runner in 14th after a weekend in which he both crashed and spun out of practice sessions.
But, as with Alonso, the conditions were also capable of catching out the established names too. Carlos Sainz's Williams debut ended inside one lap when he spun at the final corner despite the Safety Car having been called for Doohan's accident.
'We learned from our mistakes' - Norris starts title quest with statement win
After winning the first four grands prix of his career and finishing as runner-up to dominant four-time champion Verstappen in a 2024 season which saw McLaren end their 26-year wait for another Constructors' Championship, Norris had admitted ahead of this campaign that there were "no excuses" for him not to be in the drivers' title fight from the season's get-go.
Having now taken a Melbourne hat-trick of pole, win and fastest lap, the 25-year-old Briton has stayed true to that word.
"Tough race! Especially with Max behind me," said a delighted but relieved Norris afterwards after crossing the line 0.895s in front of Verstappen.
"I was pushing, especially the last two laps. A little bit stressful, I won't lie. But an amazing way to start the year."
Starting the race on intermediate tyres after the early crash-triggered delays, Norris initially enjoyed a small but handy lead over first Verstappen and then Piastri before starting to come under pressure from his team-mate as the track slowly dried.
Piastri, aiming to become the first Australian to win his home race, closed to within DRS range of his team-mate but was told by the McLaren pit wall around lap 30 that he could not try to overtake while they managed the looming expected transition to slick tyres.
Three laps later and Zak Brown, McLaren's chief executive, confirmed to Sky Sports F1 live from the pit wall that the pair were now free to race again - but by then Piastri had dropped two seconds back on Norris after dipping a wheel through the gravel at Turn Six.
Alonso soon proved how costly the merest of off-line moments at that corner could prove as he spun off into the barriers after getting over the same kerb, with the resultant Safety Car triggering the remaining runners to pit for slicks.
Norris retained the lead again when the race restarted on lap 42 but the drivers were being warned over the radio about a brief - but big - rain shower fast approaching the circuit.
It arrived little more than a lap later and, by the end of lap 44, the leading McLarens were suddenly scrambling through the gravel - with Piastri's home victory hopes soon completely evaporating.
"A tough one because we went off, went through the gravel, got damage, just tricky conditions but these ones are enjoyable, fun and unpredictable but this time we got it right and ended up on top," said Norris.
"We got it wrong a lot last year, so we learned from our mistakes. We lost out at Silverstone and Canada through a race like this.
"We got it wrong a lot last year, so we learned from our mistakes. We lost out at Silverstone and Canada through a race like this. It's only the first round of 24, so dealing with the pressure, dealing with Max, dealing with Oscar, I was pushing the whole way through."
How did Hamilton's first Ferrari race go?
In the words of the seven-time world champion, his much-anticipated maiden race in red "was a crash course in driving a Ferrari in the rain".
"It was very tricky and went a lot worse than I thought it would go," he told Sky Sports F1. "The car was really, really hard to drive today.
"For me, I'm just grateful I kept it out of the wall because that's where it wanted to go most of the time."
Hamilton also admitted there was a lot to go through with both the team and race engineer Adami after the 40-year-old had appeared to grow increasingly frustrated over the radio as the race developed about the level of detail he was at times being given.
"I think Riccardo did a really good job. We're learning about each other bit by bit," said Hamilton afterwards.
"After this we'll download, we'll go through all the comments - things I said and vice versa.
"Generally, I'm not one that likes a lot of information in-race, unless I ask for it. He did his best today and we'll move forward."
The F1 circus heads straight to Shanghai this week for the first Sprint weekend of the season at the Chinese GP, with coverage starting on Friday live on Sky Sports F1. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - No contract, cancel anytime
