A dramatic, rainy Australian Grand Prix has seen Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to the top step of the podium, amid carnage on track and a tricky day for the local heroes.
McLaren’s Lando Norris has won an action-packed 2025 Formula One Australian Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, after a costly late mistake pushed local favourite Oscar Piastri out of the front-running pack.
Record Melbourne crowds braved the rain at Albert Park to see six of the 20 drivers who qualified yesterday fail to finish, amid multiple crashes, safety cars and near-miss spins in wet conditions.
It was a tough day for the home crowd, as the other new Australian on the grid – Alpine’s Jack Doohan – spun into the wall on the first racing lap after a burst of wheelspin on a wet track.
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton finished 10th on debut for Ferrari – down from eighth in qualifying – two places behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
MORE: Oscar Piastri led by Lando Norris in close F1 Australian Grand Prix qualifying
Norris crossed the line less than a second ahead of the Red Bull Racing of Max Verstappen – after a battle in the final stages of the race – and about 8.5 seconds ahead of third-placed George Russell’s Mercedes-AMG.
Absent from the Top Five is the home hero and Norris’ team-mate, Melbourne-born Piastri, who finished ninth after qualifying second on Saturday, earning a front row spot with a time less than a tenth of a second behind Norris.
The McLaren pair spent much of the race battling with Verstappen for the top positions, helped by safety cars that brought any gaps between the front-running cars together.
It was until Norris and Piastri ran wide at Turn 12 on Lap 44 – while still on slick tyres – three quarters of the way through the race, on a track freshly soaked by rain.
While the British driver was able to recover his car, Piastri spun backwards into the grass at Turn 13, falling to the back of the field as he slowly came to a stop and reversed out.
With less than a quarter of the race remaining, he recovered to ninth, helped by another safety car to clean up crashes by Red Bull’s Liam Lawson and Kick Sauber’s F1 debutant Gabriel Bortoleto.
Sunday’s drama began before the Grand Prix even started, as rookie Isack Hadjar spun into the wall on the second corner of the formation lap in the wet conditions, the rear tyres struggling for grip out of the first turn.
It prompted the race start to be aborted – and all remaining cars returned to the grid – as Hadjar’s stricken RB was cleared.
Fifteen minutes later, the Grand Prix got underway – in which time it was confirmed this year’s event has clocked up the highest attendance of any Australian GP in Melbourne, at 465,498 fans across the four-day event ‘weekend’.
But by the end of Lap 1, both the Alpine of Australia’s Jack Doohan and the Williams of Carlos Sainz too found themselves in the wall and out of the race, both catching wheelspin at the wrong moment and spinning them into barriers on different corners.
A safety car called out after the Doohan and Sainz crashes pulled back into the pits on Lap 7, with Norris leading Verstappen and Piastri, the latter slipping to third from second on the grid at the second corner on Lap 1.
Piastri closed the gap to the Red Bull in front over the following laps before a mistake from Verstappen – braking too late into a corner and running wide – allowed the Australian to overtake on Lap 17.
By Lap 30, the gap between Piastri and his team-mate in the lead closed to half a second, only to be told by McLaren to “hold position” – seemingly contradicting promises over the weekend that team orders would not be deployed on Piastri and Norris following controversies last year.
The Australian was told three laps later he was “free to race”, and “you know the rules”, but any forward progress was limited by another safety car to clear Fernando Alonso’s crashed Aston Martin.
The McLarens’ mistakes on Lap 44 handed Verstappen the lead – as both pitted for new, wet tyres – but the reigning World Drivers’ Champion, still on slick tyres, was also forced to pit for wet-weather rubber, returning Norris to first position.
One more safety car was called before the end of the race – for Lawson’s Red Bull and Bortoleto’s Sauber – for a total of three, alongside five retirements and one driver who failed to start (Hadjar).
Norris held off a late attack from Verstappen in the final laps to secure the fifth Grand Prix win of his F1 career.
Alexander Albon crossed the line fifth in his Williams – up from fifth in qualifying – while Mercedes-AMG’s Andrea Kimi Antonelli recovered to fourth place after qualifying 16th in a damaged car.
UPDATE, 16 March 2025, 9:30pm: Antonelli has been promoted to fourth from an initial fifth-place finish after a five-second penalty for an alleged unsafe release in the pit lane was overturned. This story has been updated accordingly.
Other surprise Top 10 finishers – based on their qualifying position – include Lance Stroll of Aston Martin in sixth.
Lewis Hamilton slipped from eighth in qualifying to 10th at the end of the race, in a less-than-stellar Ferrari debut two places behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
2025 Formula One Australian Grand Prix race results
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing +0.895sec
- George Russell, Mercedes-AMG +8.481sec
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes-AMG +10.135sec
- Alexander Albon, Williams +12.773sec
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin +17.413sec
- Nico Hulkenberg, Kick Sauber +18.423sec
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari +19.826sec
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren +20.448sec
- Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari +22.473sec
- Pierre Gasly, Alpine +26.502sec
- Yuki Tsunoda, RB +29.884sec
- Esteban Ocon, Haas +33.161sec
- Oliver Bearman, Haas +40.351sec
Not classified:
- Liam Lawson, Red Bull – crashed on Lap 47
- Gabriel Bortoleto, Kick Sauber – crashed on Lap 46
- Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin – crashed on Lap 33
- Carlos Sainz Jr., Williams – crashed on Lap 1
- Jack Doohan, Alpine – crashed on Lap 1
- Isack Hadjar, RB – crashed on formation lap
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