Through a wild Melbourne race Lando Norris got to experience how it feels to be the favourite, the chaser, the pre-season title favourite. It’s one thing to have the fastest car – which the McLaren very clearly was around Albert Park – quite another to withstand the intense pressure points that this weather-randomised event threw up.
In a situation where he’d be absolutely aware that this could set the tone for his campaign, where one wrong foot could set in motion all the wrong dynamics.
“I could relax inside,” he said on asking how that pressure had felt, “but I wasn't relaxing from how much I was pushing.”
Those pressure points were coming at him from all directions. Each time he appeared to have made his day easy by sheer steamrollering performance, a jack-in-the-box would spring upon him. For a time – in the long inters-shod initial phase of the race - it was team-mate Oscar Piastri cranking on the pressure, causing serious tension at McLaren which came close to boiling over.
Then it was the reappearance of sudden heavy rain and the dilemma that brought – and waiting in the wings to pounce upon that was Max Verstappen. Six laps of that monstrous wet track combination breathing down his neck, getting into his DRS. Norris could not afford to crack. From the perspective of his title campaign it would have been disastrous. He knew what he had to do and in the end he delivered. It was a sweaty victory but a crucially important one.
Piastri’s challenge
Norris’ victory and Piastri’s ninth place finish after his disastrous spin out of second as the rain returned when everyone was on slicks makes it seem like no contest. In truth it was a huge contest, one which ran from qualifying until that moment on lap 44 when the McLarens had their formation moments, finally ending that particular contest.
Norris was just that little bit further through the corner when the wall of rain fell, meaning he had a wobbly moment rather than full looping spin onto the grass suffered by Piastri who was more loaded up mid-corner. Whichever of them had been behind the other would likely have suffered in the same way.
Working backwards from there and looking at why it was Norris ahead not Piastri, look to their final Q3 runs. The McLarens were the only cars which could retain rear tyre performance in the final sector and they therefore had a handy 0.3s advantage over the field. So it was a straight papaya duel for pole. Norris hit Turn 1 beautifully, Piastri slightly messily, to the tune of around 0.1s. But through the fast stuff – where Piastri is always truly formidable – he pulled it all back, and a little bit more. Through Turn 9, in particular, Piastri was outrageous in the speed he was able to take – 4km/h faster than Norris at the seventh-gear apex - but perhaps that just asked that crucial bit too much of the rear tyres. Because in the fiddly slow turns of the final sector, Norris was comfortably faster and neater. Giving him pole by just less than 0.1s. That crucial tenth of a second which decided which of them caught the rain mid-corner on lap 44 and which on the exit.
Did Piastri have greater race pace? Well, once he’d repassed Verstappen – who’d picked him off into Turn 3 on the opening lap, the Red Bull getting its tyres up to temperature quicker – he got Norris’ 3s lead down to 0.6s DRS scratching distance within 10 laps. So maybe. On the other hand, Norris was in the lead and anxious to get his inters to last as long as possible so as know with more certainty what tyre would be needed at the stops. To have responded to Piastri closing him down could have compromised his strategy. But allowing him into his DRS zone does suggest he didn’t have an answer to Piastri’s pace in that phase of the race.
So now Norris had to not only preserve his tyres but also ensure he was still the leading McLaren driver – and therefore receiving strategic priority - at the first stops. He had to do this while concentrating intensely on not letting any tyre get out of the drying groove of grip, especially at the quick and tricky Turn 6 with its new up-close gravel trap. Conversely, Piastri desperately wanted to ensure it was him who received strategic priority – which was going to involve overtaking Norris. It was just at this very moment that Piastri received the call: “Hold position in the transition to the dry and clear the backmarkers.”
“Ok. I’m quicker,” came the response, flat, unemotional in its delivery but the message clear. They made their way past the two Haas cars – Hulkenberg giving Norris DRS at the crucial moment when otherwise he might have been DRS’d by Piastri – and Oscar then enquired: “Are we still holding position now we’ve cleared the traffic?”
“Hold for now,” came the reply. “Let us know your pace.”
“You can see my pace.”
But then Turn 6 bit. The left-rear just nudging into the gravel on lap 32, losing him momentum all the way up the following flat-out stretch to Turn 9. It lost him around 1.5s – and the DRS. It was Piastri who’d made the error, as he’d tried to apply the pressure. Norris who had withstood it.
But even with the immediate pressure of Piastri off, Norris couldn’t relax. There was a black cloud dilemma hovering – one so horribly familiar to him from Sochi ’21 or Montreal or Silverstone ’24. The radar was insisting more heavy rain was on the way. But when? Soon enough that he could get straight onto replacement inters? Or later, requiring him to stop for slicks as his existing inters inevitably wore out?
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The pressure was definitely evident in this moment, as he suggested getting earlier than the others onto inters. His engineer Will Joseph talked him out of that. No point being on the wrong tyres for the track at that moment. But the paranoia would still be there, feeding into his info-cluttered mind in this stressful moment: but what if Oscar made a call to get onto the inters early and undercut ahead of him? At this stage, Piastri was his only concern. They’d pulled out over 16s on Verstappen, the Red Bull just unable to keep its rear tyres in shape for anything like as long as the limo-riding, beautifully balanced McLaren.
Norris was saved from his dilemma by Fernando Alonso having the Turn 6 crash that Piastri had just narrowly avoided. As the Aston hit the wall backwards and the safety car came out, so everyone was able to pit and switch to slicks, hard compounds in the case of the McLarens, faster-warming mediums for Verstappen and with that 16s deficit now wiped. That was lap 34, during which time the threat of the rain was increasing. Again, Norris was asking if they should not pit for inters before the rain actually arrived. Again he was talked out of it. The ghost of Sochi ’21 hovered.
It took until lap 41 for racing to get underway again and Norris handled the restart beautifully, getting the drop on Piastri who in turn was able to keep Verstappen off his back. This time Norris seemed set on not allowing Piastri into his DRS zone and was 2.7s ahead after two laps. Piastri was just beginning to come back at him as they came through Turn 12 on lap 44 and hit the wall of rain.
The Verstappen challenge
Piastri ended up on the grass, desperately trying to get back out. Norris scooped up the moment, but lost a load of momentum, looked likely to be devoured by Verstappen. Except he made straight for the pits for his new inters. Red Bull kept Verstappen out – “it was only wet on those two corners, at that time” he said later. “So it wasn’t obviously the wrong thing to do.”
“We kept him out two laps extra,” said Horner, “just to throw the dice. If the weather had held, it could’ve won us the race.” But did the second extra lap actually cost them it? He was just over 18s in front at the end of the first extra lap. “We’ve looked at it,” said Horner, “and it wouldn’t have been quite enough. He was never quite in position to undercut.”
Instead, Verstappen emerged around 1.5s behind, both now on fresh inters and pulling quickly away from George Russell’s Mercedes.
More from the Australian GP
Read: Hamilton on his 'crash course' Ferrari debut
Read: Piastri's reaction to spinning away podium
Read: More on Antonelli's incredible debut
The moment of jeopardy had thrown Ferrari. As the others pitted for inters, they elected to keep Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton (who’d been running fifth and eighth) out on their slicks, gambling that the rain would disappear, and vault them to the front. Leclerc spun, losing several places, including to Hamilton who briefly assumed the lead when Verstappen pitted. But it was a desperate ploy, one which saw them rejoining eighth and ninth, with Leclerc muscling his way back ahead of his new team mate shortly after rejoining. Hamilton would later also be passed on the last lap for ninth by a stunningly committed around-the-outside of Turn 9 move by the recovering Piastri.
Yuki Tsunoda, who’d run ahead of Hamilton and Alex Albon’s Williams throughout, made a similar bid for glory as Ferrari – and ended up way out the points. Leaving the way clear for Albon to run fourth before being passed by starring debutant Kimi Antonelli, whose pace in the wet in the Mercedes had brought him steadily up the field despite a few adventures. Also benefitting from the various gambles were good drives from Lance Stroll (Aston) and Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber).
Liam Lawson (running near the back after starting from the pitlane) spun his Red Bull at much the same time that Gabriel Bortoleto did likewise after what appeared to be a rear suspension breakage in the Sauber. Out came the safety car again while they were cleared. There were six laps left as racing resumed – and the safety car had put Verstappen right on Norris’ tail. A late Verstappen ambush looked feasible, as DRS was enabled once more. Norris hooked that tricky Turn 6 gravel (damaging the floor) and the Red Bull was all over him. Just with not quite enough momentum to make the pass.
Like that, Norris absorbed the pressure and now leads the world championship.
