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Lando Norris has won the opening round of the F1 season in Australia, holding off a late charge from the World Champion Max Verstappen who finished in second place. George Russell claimed the last place on the podium for Mercedes.

In a grand prix dictated by the weather the Mclaren’s were able to show off their dominant pace advantage over the rest, as they pulled a massive 15 second lead over the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. However, this lead was soon to diminish as the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso found the wall at turn 6 causing an 8-lap long safety car period.

The safety car provided the teams with an opportunity to move onto the slick dry tyres, which all the drivers took advantage of before the restart of the race with only 16 laps to go. But to the driver’s annoyance a chance of a sudden rain shower was on the horizon.

And after only a couple laps of running the rainfall hit the last sector of the circuit, causing both Mclaren drivers to run wide at turn 12 of the Albert Park circuit. Norris was able to quickly recover and return to the racetrack, but home favourite Oscar Piastri was not as lucky. His Mclaren found itself in the grass on the exit of the penultimate corner. He was able to rejoin the race, but he was already a lap down.

Norris jumped straight into the pit-lane for a set of intermediate tyres, leaving the 4-time World Champion Max Verstappen in the lead to venture around a very tricky wet circuit on slick tyres.

As the rain intensified Verstappen had no choice other than to pit for the intermediates.

Shortly after the safety car was required once again as Verstappen’s teammate Liam Lawson crashed at turn 2 and fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoleto lost control of his Kick Sauber at turn 13, both drivers were forced to retire from the race.

The safety car ended with 6-laps to go, with Max Verstappen right on the rear end of his closest rival in 2024’s Mclaren. Setting up a great end to a chaotic grand prix.

Norris was able to stay composed and convert his first pole of the 2025 season into his first win at the season opener.

George Russell took third place after a quiet grand prix, with Mercedes once again not having the pace to match Mclaren and Red Bull. But with the correct tyre strategy he was able to bring home the result.

His teammate Kimi Antonelli was able to turn a poor qualifying into a great result, as he took advantage of the mixed conditions to move up from 17^th place to 4^th on his F1 debut. The Italian did receive a 5 second time penalty for an unsafe release, which temporarily demoted him to 5^th place. This was later overturned as Mercedes showed evidence to the stewards that proved the team’s innocence.

It was a great day for William’s driver Alex Albon who was able to claim 5^th place, his best result since the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. His teammate Carlos Sainz was not as fortunate, as he crashed early in the race on his debut for the team.

Lance Stroll claimed sixth place for Aston Martin, once again showing his wet weather driving skills. While Nico Hulkenberg finished his return to Sauber in an extraordinary 7^th place. He claimed 6 points for the team, which already surpasses their 2024 points total.

It was a disappointing day for Ferrari, who failed to deliver on the promised pace from testing during the grand prix. Charles Leclerc managed a lowly 8^th place finish. And Lewis Hamilton on his Ferrari debut only scored the one point, as he finished 10^th place. Behind a recovering Oscar Piastri in 9^th place.