Norris leads Sainz in first 2025 F1 practice, big crash for Bearman

Pre-season Formula 1 favourite Lando Norris put McLaren on top right at the end of first practice for the Australian Grand Prix, deposing Carlos Sainz's Williams.

Leading positions
1 Norris (McLaren)
2 Sainz (Williams)
3 Leclerc (Ferrari)
4 Piastri (McLaren)
5 Verstappen (Red Bull)

Full results at bottom of page

The session was disrupted by a long red flag for Haas's Ollie Bearman crashing on his first attempt at a qualifying simulation this year, having only run heavy in testing.

Bearman ran wide out of the second part of the fast Turn 9/10 left/right combination, went over the gravel then fully lost control and slewed into the barriers on the outside of the track.

He was unhurt, but the Haas sustained heavy damage.

That was the session's second red flag, the first caused by debris on track.

Soft-tyre runs had just started when Bearman crashed, with Sainz and Williams impressively pipping Ferrari's Charles Leclerc (who'd been fastest in the first half of the session when all were on mediums) to the top spot at that point.

It looked like Sainz would stay there until Norris - whose first soft-tyre effort had been compromised by a multi-corner place swapping battle with Yuki Tsunoda's Racing Bull - unleashed a 1m17.252s to beat the Williams by 0.149s.

Leclerc's time held up for third, ahead of the second McLaren of Oscar Piastri and champion Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

Williams had both cars in the top six, with Alex Albon sixth despite running wide on his final soft-tyre attempt.

George Russell spun his Mercedes through the Turn 4 left-hander in the final minute and was seventh, with team-mate Kimi Antonelli 14th.

Lewis Hamilton had a low-key start to his first race weekend as a Ferrari driver in 12th.

FP1 results

1 Lando Norris (McLaren) 1m17.252s
2 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.149s
3 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.209s
4 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) +0.418s
5 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.444s
6 Alex Albon (Williams) +0.461s
7 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.464s
8 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.484s
9 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.595s
10 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.805s
11 Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls) +0.809s
12 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.819s
13 Jack Doohan (Alpine) +0.980s
14 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +1.138s
15 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +1.186s
16 Liam Lawson (Red Bull) +1.203s
17 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.253s
18 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +1.336s
19 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.887s
20 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +2.060s