Lando Norris weathered the storm to win the opening race of the 2025 Formula 1 season in Australia. In what was a chaotic race in wet and tricky conditions.
In a race riddled with rain, drivers spinning off, and safety cars, even before the race had begun. Norris held on to victory despite reigning champion Max Verstappen bearing down on him in the final lap.
With the best car on track, Norris was in control from start to finish. He handled the numerous safety car restarts well from the front, better than last season. Even with a little wobble near the end, he and his race engineer made the right decision at the correct time, which won them the race.
Norris had a huge scare on lap 45 as the rain came down once again, at Turn 11 the weather caught both McLaren cars out. After both cars mowed the grass, Norris saved the car from disaster. Home favorite Oscar Piastri came back on in front of Verstappen yet skidded back onto the grass at the final corner ruining his race.
Piastri dropped from P2 to P13 and did well in the last 6 laps, once the safety car came in for the last time to fight back and get back into the points finishing ninth.
Verstappen and George Russell took advantage of Piastri’s misfortune, with both the Red Bull and Mercedes drivers moving up to the podium places.
HOW THE REST OF THE TOP 10 LOOKED
Alex Albon drove a great race, finishing fifth for Williams. 18-year-old rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli made it a fantastic opening round for Mercedes, finishing fourth and keeping that place after successfully appealing a five-second penalty.
Lance Stroll claimed sixth place and bagged some good points for Aston Martin, in the chaos that pursued. Nico Hulkenberg scored some big-time points for Kick Sauber, coming home in seventh place. A disastrous moment of madness for Ferrari saw Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton drop from good points positions to eighth and 10th place.
WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS
The tough weather conditions that caused the F2 feature race to be cancelled earlier on in the day, caught out an array of drivers. Seasoned race winners and rookies alike, Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar who was having an impressive weekend, sent his car into the barrier on the formation lap at turn 2, while trying to warm up his tyres which delayed the start of the race.
Once the race finally got underway, we got about half a lap in before the safety car came out, as Alpine’s Aussie Jack Doohan hit the wall. And with the track proving to be very slippery, last year’s Australian Grand Prix race winner Carlos Sainz lost control of his Williams, also sending his car into the wall under safety car conditions at Turn 14. A very lengthy safety car period followed as there were two cars on the track that had to be recovered.
With the track drying up later, more rain was expected towards the end of the race. Drivers and engineers were unsure when it was the right time to move to the slicks. But the majority of minds were made up when Fernando Alonso hit the wall on lap 34 causing another safety car, most drivers put hards on while a couple went for medium tyres.
While everyone was watching both the McLaren cars go off track, as the rain came down. Norris and Piastri weren’t the only ones caught out as at the same time, Leclerc who was running in fifth, spun out keeping the car on track but dropped out of the points places.
That made nearly everyone go back into the pits, to put the intermediate tyres back on. Norris went straight into box after coming off and most of the grid followed, while Verstappen stayed out one lap later and both Ferrari cars stayed out.
That would prove very costly for the Maranello outfit, with the rain coming down and 95% of the grid on intermediates, Ferrari chose to keep both cars out on track on the hard tyre. Leclerc and Hamilton severely struggled around the track but eventually pitted due to another safety car.
With 10 laps to go on Lap 47, Red Bull’s Liam Lawson and Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto both crashed into the wall at Turns 2 and 13 respectively.
A chaotic and eventful race packed with incidents, drama, joy, and heartbreak, and we have another 23 races to go yet. It’s good to be back.
