Lando Norris survived a chaotic end to win Formula 1’s season-opening Australian Grand Prix but McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri spun away second place in his home race.
McLaren had dominated the first race of the year with Norris and Piastri pulling over 15 seconds clear of Max Verstappen’s Red Bull before Fernando Alonso dropped his Aston Martin at Turn 6 to kick off a wild end to the race.
Leading finishers
1 Norris
2 Verstappen
3 Russell
4 Albon
5 Antonelli
Full results at bottom of page
Once a lengthy eight-lap recovery of his stricken Aston Martin was complete, the race restarted with 16 laps to go but with a big threat of a sudden rain shower on the horizon.
That rain hit shortly after the restart and caused chaos. The race leading McLarens both ran wide at the Turn 12 right-hander and while Norris immediately recovered to the track, Piastri’s McLaren swapped ends on him and he ended up stuck on the grass on the exit of Turn 13.
He eventually got going again but was a lap down before he rejoined the track.
Norris immediately dived for the pits for intermediates when he’d recovered while Verstappen stayed out on slicks and took the lead.
The rain intensified and Red Bull had no choice but to pit Verstappen for inters as he tiptoed around the final sector on slicks.
The safety car was required once more as Verstappen’s team-mate Liam Lawson crashed at Turn 2 and Gabriel Bortoleto lost control of his Sauber at Turn 13 with both of their races ending.
That set up a final six-lap shootout with Verstappen piling the pressure on his closest 2024 title rival Norris.
Norris managed to keep Verstappen just about at arm’s length to convert pole into his first race win of 2025.
George Russell had a quiet run to third place, not having the pace to run with the top three in the first stint but making the correct tyre calls when it mattered later.
His rookie Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli excelled in the mixed conditions and rose from 17th to fourth on the road on his F1 debut.
A five second time penalty for Mercedes unsafely releasing him demoted him to fifth place temporarily before the team managed to get that penalty overturned.
Carlos Sainz crashing his Williams early on left Alex Albon as the team’s sole representative. He had a fantastic race to claim fifth - his best result since his final Red Bull podium at the 2020 Bahrain GP.
Lance Stroll kept a cool head to come home sixth for Aston Martin while Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh on his Sauber return - earning six points that already surpasses Sauber’s 2024 points total.
Ferrari disaster
Lewis Hamilton endured a disappointing debut for Ferrari as he took a single point for a 10th place finish, two places behind his team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Ferrari kept both drivers out during the late-race rain shower and briefly led, but both lost heaps of time before they eventually came in for intermediates.
Leclerc finished eighth while a recovering Piastri demoted Hamilton to 10th just before the chequered flag.
All three drivers passed Pierre Gasly’s Alpine late-on as his race was underdone by an off through the grass at Turn 1.
Yuki Tsunoda was running in the top six early on but poor strategy choices left him 12th only ahead of the Haas cars of Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman.
Three early casualties
There was even drama before the race started when Isack Hadjar lost control of his Racing Bulls car at the exit of Turn 1/2 on the formation lap, spearing his car into the wall and ending his first F1 race before it even began.
Hadjar was physically unhurt but visually distraught after stepping out of the cockpit, with Anthony Hamilton and F1 CEO Stefano Domencali among those to console Hadjar.
That led to an aborted start with a second formation lap taking place 10 minutes later.
Not long after that start Jack Doohan mangled his Alpine on the run to Turn 6, bringing out a safety car that Carlos Sainz would prematurely end his Williams debut under as he sent his car into the wall at the final corner.
Results
1 Lando Norris (McLaren)
2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
3 George Russell (Mercedes)
4 Alex Albon (Williams)
5 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
6 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
7 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
8 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
9 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
10 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
11 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
12 Yuki Tsunoda (Racing Bulls)
13 Esteban Ocon (Haas)
14 Ollie Bearman (Haas)
DNF Liam Lawson (Red Bull)
DNF Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
DNF Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
DNF Carlos Sainz (Williams)
DNF Jack Doohan (Alpine)
DNF Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
