Oscar Piastri called upon some unique experience to avoid retiring from the Australian Grand Prix, but admits spinning out of contention of his home race hurt. McLaren was in control of the race before a late rain shower caused both race leader …
Oscar Piastri called upon some unique experience to avoid retiring from the Australian Grand Prix, but admits spinning out of contention of his home race hurt.
McLaren was in control of the race before a late rain shower caused both race leader Lando Norris and Piastri to slide wide in the final sector. While Norris retained the lead as he rejoined the track and immediately entered the pits, Piastri spun onto the grass at the penultimate corner and was stuck for nearly an entire lap as he dropped from second to the back of the field.
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“The start was not amazing, but I just got pinched on the inside a little bit and then got overtaken,” Piastri said. “I think the pace was really strong until we pitted for slicks and I think Max locked up a little bit and went wide and I was able to show the pace I had. So just a shame that all of that didn’t lead to the result we wanted to.
“I tried to push a bit too much I guess. In those conditions it’s very difficult to judge just how slippery it’s going to be. I think from one lap to the next it had really changed a lot and I could see Lando going off in front of me, but I was also already in the corner basically, so there wasn’t much I could do to slow myself down at that point.
“Then once you’re in the gravel and the grass you obviously try to keep the car as straight as possible. And then to get stuck in the grass like that was pretty unbelievable, sat in the car, but I’ve only got myself to blame for being there, so it’s a shame.”
Piastri reversed slowly on the wet grass to make his way to a run-off area and remain in the race, and said it was a skill that benefited from an unusual experience over the winter.
“I was just trying to stay in the race, tried to go forwards and couldn’t, so it’s a good thing I spent some time in the off-season trying to learn how to reverse a tractor at (TV personality) Jeremy Clarkson’s farm. I think it came in handy. I was just trying to get myself back in the race.”
Despite missing out on the chance to win his home race, Piastri said the overall signs for both himself and McLaren are encouraging.
“I think for essentially 56 laps of the race, I was very proud of the job I did,” he said. “The pace was really strong. Obviously disappointed with the mistake I made, but that doesn’t take away completely from how strong the whole weekend’s been, for not just the team, but for myself.
“I feel like I’ve done a good job all weekend, so it wouldn’t be pessimistic of me to just write off the whole weekend because of one mistake.
“One thing we wanted to do this year was start stronger than we’ve started the last two years, and (Sunday) pretty emphatically showed that we mean business.
“Clearly it will hurt for a period of time, but I’m still happy with the job I did apart from that one (lap). Those are incredibly tough conditions and we saw a lot of people struggling – not that that means I should struggle, but there’s still plenty of positives to take.”
Helmut Marko has described Isack Hadjar’s reaction to crashing out on the formation lap at the Australian Grand Prix as “a bit embarrassing”. Hadjar lost control at Turn 2 in wet conditions when trying to generate tire temperature on the way to the …
Helmut Marko has described Isack Hadjar’s reaction to crashing out on the formation lap at the Australian Grand Prix as “a bit embarrassing”.
Hadjar lost control at Turn 2 in wet conditions when trying to generate tire temperature on the way to the grid, crashing into the barrier and failing to make the start of what was his debut race. The Racing Bulls driver was then pictured walking down the paddock in tears, returning to his team distraught at his error.
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“Isack Hadjar did a little bit of crying after his crash,” he told Austrian broadcaster ORF. “That was a bit embarrassing.”
However, Marko’s comments were not reciprocated by the majority of the paddock, after Lewis Hamilton’s father Anthony stopped the rookie – who has made no secret of the fact Hamilton is his hero – on his return from the incident to offer words of encouragement.
“When I saw it happen, my heart just sank for him,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “Not just for him, for his parents, for everything they’ve done to work hard to get to this one point, and it’s like it’s snatched from you.
“I just felt terrible for him, so I thought ‘you know what, I need to go and tell this kid keep your head high, walk tall, you’re gonna come back’. I think he’s a phenomenal driver. I think there’s more to come from Isack than we probably have seen this weekend.”
Hadjar himself explained the incident was caused by a desire to try and be aggressive in the way he warmed his tires before a wet first race start in F1, and said he felt terrible for his car crew but was grateful for the gesture from Anthony Hamilton.
“(Hamilton said) just keep your head high,” Hadjar said. “I think he knows what tough times are and I think he sees a rookie putting it in the wall on not even lap one, he knows how tough it feels. He came to comfort me, I think it was a really nice gesture from him. But nevertheless it feels really hard and I feel really sorry for the team.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was another who was supportive of Hadjar’s reaction to the crash, despite the severity of his error ruling him out of the race before it had even started.
“It was quite heart-wrenching to see him so gutted in his first grand prix,” Horner said. “I think the positives he needs to take out of it when he reflects on the weekend. He performed very well through the practices and the qualifying.
“You forget that these guys are just kids really. Obviously a lot of emotion for him, but I think when he strips it back, there’s an awful lot of positives he can take out of the weekend. He’s got many bright days ahead of him.”
Max Verstappen believes a failed attempt to make it to the end of the Australian Grand Prix on slick tires was still a risk worth taking as he was set to finish second regardless. A late burst of rain led to the two leading McLaren drivers slide off …
Max Verstappen believes a failed attempt to make it to the end of the Australian Grand Prix on slick tires was still a risk worth taking as he was set to finish second regardless.
A late burst of rain led to the two leading McLaren drivers slide off the track in the final sector, with Oscar Piastri stuck on the grass for nearly an entire lap. Lando Norris was able to rejoin quickly and enter the pits, but Verstappen stayed out on slicks to lead for two laps before also stopping and dropping back behind the McLaren.
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“We were on the medium (tire), and you never know how that’s going to work out, but I thought it was quite a sensible call with 15, 16, or 20 laps to go when the safety car came out,” Verstappen said. “Then it started to rain. I saw them go off in front of me, kept it clean, and when I saw Oscar rejoining, I thought, ‘Well, let’s stay out,’ because it was only those three corners. The rest was still dry.
“When I continued, basically, the first two sectors were fine – it was just if I could survive the final sector. I think that lap I did was OK. If there wasn’t much more rain coming, I thought it could work. You also have to factor in that even if they caught me on an inter, they’d have to box again for slicks, if it’s not going to rain anymore. So, it was fine.
“I thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll do another lap,’ but then, unfortunately, on that lap, the first sector was still OK-ish, but then in Sector 2, it started to rain a bit too much and we had to box.
“But in hindsight, it wouldn’t have mattered. If I’d boxed with Lando, it would have been P2. If I’d boxed the next lap, it would have been P2. And the lap that I did box, I was also P2. So, we tried something else – it might have worked. In a way, it didn’t work, but we didn’t lose any position, so it’s fine.”
After pitting for intermediates, Verstappen pushed Norris all the way to the flag after another late safety car, but he says he never felt he could make a move and is still wary of the performance advantage McLaren showed earlier in the race.
“I think it’s good compared to the teams behind us. But if you look at the first stint, we were quite a bit off. As soon as the tires started to overheat, we had no chance. McLaren just took off.
“So, we still have a lot of work to do to fight for a win. But I’m happy that we are second here. It’s basically one place better than we should have been. And it’s 18 more points than I had last year at this race.”
Lewis Hamilton says he felt like he was far outside his comfort zone when driving for Ferrari after finishing 10th in the Australian Grand Prix. Ferrari struggled in Q3 on Saturday and Hamilton started from eighth, one place behind teammate Charles …
Lewis Hamilton says he felt like he was far outside his comfort zone when driving for Ferrari after finishing 10th in the Australian Grand Prix.
Ferrari struggled in Q3 on Saturday and Hamilton started from eighth, one place behind teammate Charles Leclerc. He was stuck in traffic for a long spell in wet conditions, and having climbed forward when drivers were trying to negotiate further rain while on slicks, he eventually dropped to the final points-paying position in the closing laps.
“Sometimes it’s OK (being out of my comfort zone), but today it definitely didn’t feel (OK), it felt like I was in the deep, deep end today,” Hamilton said. “Everything is new, from the first time I’m driving this car in the rain, the car was behaving a lot different to what I’ve experienced in the past. The power unit, all the steering functions, all the things that are thrown to you, you’re trying to juggle all these new things.
“Unfortunately, at the end they said it was just a short shower, so I was like, ‘I’m going to hold it out’ and the rest of the track was dry, so I was like, ‘I’m going to stick it out as long as I can and keep it on the track.’ They didn’t say more was coming. And all of a sudden, more came.
“So I think it was just lacking that bit of information at the end. But I didn’t have any confidence today in it, unfortunately. I’m going to make some changes next week to the car, to the setup.”
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Although Hamilton spent most of the race trying to find a way past Alex Albon, he climbed into the lead at one stage amid a rain shower, but eventually had to make a pit stop when the safety car was deployed and dropped away from the frontrunners.
“In that moment, I don’t know, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m third!’ I was leading for a second. I don’t know if we have anywhere near the pace as the McLarens had today but I do think in the actual car, there is a lot more performance, I just don’t think we unlocked it this week.”
One aspect of the race that received plenty of focus on the television broadcast was Hamilton’s interactions with his race engineer Riccardo Adami, but despite a few communication issues the seven-time world champion is pleased with their starting point.
“I think Riccardo did a really good job. We’re learning about each other, and bit by bit, after this, we’ll download and go through all the comments, things I said and vice-versa. Generally, I’m not one that likes a lot of information in the race, unless I need it, I’ll ask for it. He did his best today and we’ll move forwards for sure.”
Lando Norris is in uncharted territory. By winning the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, he is now leading the drivers’ championship for the first time in his Formula 1 career. It brings to an end a remarkable run of 1,029 days since the last …
Lando Norris is in uncharted territory. By winning the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, he is now leading the drivers’ championship for the first time in his Formula 1 career.
It brings to an end a remarkable run of 1,029 days since the last time a driver other than Max Verstappen was top of the standings, with the Dutchman having taken over from Charles Leclerc at the Spanish Grand Prix in May 2022, and never been headed until today.
But Norris is also dealing with the pressure that comes with the tag of drivers’ championship favorite, and leading from the front when he is expected to. On paper, converting pole position into a victory in Melbourne looks like a simple outcome in the record books, but it’s the manner of the win that Norris was so proud of as he reflecting on a chaotic Sunday.
“To start the season off like this – to start it off with a win is good enough, but to do it in such a stressful race, one where it’s so easy to make a mistake, so easy to to ruin everything so quickly, it can all have gone wrong within a second,” Norris said.
“Any second of the race, you (can) lock up, you hit the white line wrong, you have a big snap, it was just very, very difficult at times to just not go into a wall or a tire barrier somewhere. So that’s a big enough challenge, but then when you have got the weather changing and the track conditions changing, knowing when to make the correct decision to change onto a slick tire and stay out on the inter tire, and then even more when I’ve got Max behind me and Oscar [Piastri] behind me, it’s stressful.
“But I guess it’s what makes it rewarding, it makes it such a nice win. Difficult, a lot of tough moments, but I guess that’s what makes it sweeter.
“We worked a lot over the winter to prepare for a race like this, because it’s where we threw away a lot of opportunities last season. It was Canada, (and) Silverstone, where we were not the best at preparing and knowing how decisive we’ve got to be. And today we were very, very decisive, calling to box five meters before I boxed, but it was the right call in the end, and that won us the race. So stressful, but rewarding.”
Norris ticked off a number of milestones during the race weekend at Albert Park that can seem small but are far from insignificant. One of those was taking pole position with his final lap, overcoming an error that led to his first attempt getting deleted, and the next was getting a clean launch off the line in the wet to lead the opening lap once again.
That was a repeat of what he had managed to achieve in Abu Dhabi last time out, and while there wasn’t the pressure of a constructors’ title on the line on Sunday, there were wet conditions and the looming specter of Verstappen in his mirrors.
Verstappen had cleared Piastri at the start but didn’t have the pace to keep up with the McLarens as the track dried. Come the final stages, though, the defending champion had made all of the right calls to put himself right on Norris’ gearbox for a late safety car restart – the third that Norris handled well – and in with a shot of an unexpected victory.
And that’s when the pressure was really on. Red Bull knew there was a chance to try and expose what it has suggested is a potential weakness in Norris’ armor, specifically his ability to handle the big moments.
“[Verstappen] very nearly nicked it at the end there,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said. “I think Lando looked like he tightened up a little bit at the end of the race. He made a mistake at Turn 6, went half off the track and that gave Max a little bit of a run at a track that’s very difficult to overtake, and then the next lap he got another run.”
Norris resisted late pressure from Max Verstappen. Lubomir Asenov/Getty Images
In the end, those were the only two looks Verstappen got, as Norris held him off by 0.8s to take the win. But while the McLaren driver acknowledged his error, he pointed to teamwork from McLaren in helping him stay focused, and he believes it was the track layout that prevented him pulling clear again.
“I knew I was going to struggle a bit just because I put the inter on two laps prior to him and with half the track still being dry, I pushed and even the high speed was dry, so I kind of destroyed my tires a little bit.
“The front tires, you could see the rubber was already rolling over on the edges, so I knew my pace advantage was not going to be as much as it was at the beginning of the race.
“At the very beginning of the race, when it was wettest, Max was just as quick as us. As it dried, we got a lot quicker and then the Red Bull started to struggle. So I knew Max would be quick in those last few laps and I knew he would risk a bit more because there’s only about five, six, seven laps to go.
“I did make a mistake in Turn 6, where I just put a wheel in the gravel. I just lost all my momentum and drive, and Max got to within DRS and DRS really managed to help him stay there.
“It’s just tough because it’s not so much just the pressure of him being there, but it was the pressure of if I put a wheel too close to a white line on an entry, I’m off. If I clip the curve wrong in six on the inside, I’m off. If I dip a wheel in the gravel, I get a bad run and he’s past.
“There’s so many little things that can go wrong, so just trying to concentrate on not locking, not rear locking, not hitting the curbs wrong, but still trying to go quicker than you’ve ever gone because you know a guy’s trying to do the same behind you.
“It was stressful. I’m not going to lie about that. I was checking my mirrors a good amount and things like that, but even Will [Joseph, race engineer] came on the radio to me and told me just to chill out a little bit.
“He knows and Jarv [Andrew Jarvis] as well, my racing performance engineer, knows very quickly from my driving when I’m pushing a bit too much, when I’m pushing entries too much and those kind of things. They’re very quick to jump on and say, ‘Do this better,’ or ‘Watch out for that,’ because they know what I do and what I struggle with, especially in a situation like that.
“But that situation was new for me. I’ve not ever led a race with five laps to go with Max behind me trying to put me under pressure and in these conditions. Maybe Max has had that a few times. He’s raced against Lewis [Hamilton] a lot and he can just deal with that probably better than I can.
“For me, it was a new situation, so it was kind of see how it goes when I get there. So happy that I just got through it and stayed calm, and it’s somewhere I improved on from last year.”
It wasn’t perfect – as Piastri’s lost podium proves – but it was a race that McLaren and Norris could well have failed to take victory from last season. And Verstappen’s threat shows it was an improvement that the team needed to make if it is to give itself the best chance of success on both fronts this year.
Mercedes has managed to overturn a penalty given to Kimi Antonelli that promotes him to fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix, after winning a right of review. Antonelli was given a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release in the closing …
Mercedes has managed to overturn a penalty given to Kimi Antonelli that promotes him to fourth place in the Australian Grand Prix, after winning a right of review.
Antonelli was given a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release in the closing stages of the race, a punishment that dropped him from fourth to fifth – behind Alex Albon – at the checkered flag. Mercedes moved quickly to try and get the penalty reviewed, with the petition proving it had a significant and relevant new element that was unavailable to it at the time of the decision.
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The element was the footage from the roll hoop camera on Antonelli’s car, that was not available at the time of the incident and could only be downloaded by F1’s technical team post-race.
The incident also included Nico Hulkenberg, with Antonelli deemed to have been released into the Stake driver’s path. However, the stewards deem that the footage showed the release was not unsafe.
“Having examined the new video, plus additional video previously not available to the stewards and taken from the helicopter, the stewards decide to reverse the previous decision,” the stewards’ document read. “As a result the penalty on Car 12 [Antonelli] in document number 43 is removed and no further action is required.
“It is clear that Car 12 did not cross into the fast lane until a significant distance down the pit lane and only after the driver checked his mirror to confirm clearance with Car 27 [Hulkenberg]. The roll hoop camera shows that he had sufficient room to safely pass the McLaren pits without risk to the McLaren mechanics.”
Antonelli started 16th in Sunday’s race and overtook Albon late in the race for fourth, but had not managed to pull five seconds clear before the finish.
The penalty reversal also moves Mercedes level on points with McLaren in the constructors’ championship, with McLaren ranked ahead on 27 points courtesy of 25 of those coming from Lando Norris’ victory.
Lando Norris opened his 2025 title campaign with a high-pressure victory ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen on an unpredictable rain-soaked afternoon at the Australian Grand Prix. The pole-getter survived a battle with teammate Oscar Piastri …
Lando Norris opened his 2025 title campaign with a high-pressure victory ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen on an unpredictable rain-soaked afternoon at the Australian Grand Prix.
The pole-getter survived a battle with teammate Oscar Piastri and a trip through the gravel at Turn 12 to lead the field at the third safety car restart of the afternoon ahead of Verstappen with five laps to go, setting up a high-stakes sprint for victory.
The Dutchman got himself within a second of the leader for the final three laps, but the McLaren man refused to break, holding him off by just 0.895s.
“It was amazing,” he said. “A tough race, especially with Max behind me.
“The last two laps were a little bit stressful, I’m not going to lie, but an amazing way to start the year. To McLaren I have to give a big thanks, because they’ve given me an amazing car.”
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The autumnal sunshine that bathed the circuit as Norris took the checkered flag contrasted starkly with the heavy rain that had lashed Melbourne’s Albert Park in the hours leading up to the race, forcing the abandonment of two of the support category races, and though the showers had abated in time for drivers to line up on the grid, the circuit remained treacherously slippery.
Isack Hadjar was its first victim, spinning into the barriers at Turn 1 on the formation lap and breaking his rear wing, putting himself out of what should have been his maiden grand prix.
The race got going after a 15-minute delay but was neutralized behind the first of three safety cars when Jack Doohan lost control of his Alpine over the painted road markings as he exited Turn 5, slamming into the wall.
Carlos Sainz then found the barriers exiting the final corner despite the caution as a result of what the 2024 Australian Grand Prix winner described as “a massive torque surge.”
After six laps to clear the wrecks, Norris led the field away cleanly, fending off Verstappen, who had jumped Piastri for second out of Turn 2 on the first lap. The top three held position, equidistant with gaps of around a second, for the opening laps as drivers got their eyes in on the slippery circuit.
But much as they had done in qualifying, Verstappen’s tires soon began to falter, his car less kind to the Pirelli rubber. Pressured by Piastri into the rapid Turn 9-10 chicane, Verstappen braked too late into Turn 11, sailing deep into the standing water on the curbs and allowing the Australian to sail into second place.
The Dutchman was quick on the radio to complain that his tires were expiring, but Red Bull Racing was reluctant to pit him with rain still on the radar. He faded rapidly from the lead battle, losing almost 1.5s per lap, to leave the McLaren drivers in what appeared to be an exclusive battle for victory.
Piastri put his foot down, slowly shredding what had been a 2.8s deficit to get within DRS on lap 28. The Australian was visually brimming with confidence, later on the brakes and faster through the high-speed sections of the circuit, but on lap 30 he was told to hold station behind his teammate, with the transition to slick tires still on the horizon.
“I mean, I’m faster, but OK,” he radioed back. At first he held himself within DRS range, but a mistake running deep at Turn 6 opened the gap back to 2.5s.
Suddenly McLaren changed its mind. Piastri would be allowed to race his teammate after all so long as he followed team rules.
But the race was neutralized again before the home favorite could contemplate fighting back. Fernando Alonso had crashed at Turn 6, spinning his car over the curbs, sliding down the road and whacking into the barrier, putting himself out of the race. The second safety car was immediately called, sending most of the field back into the pits for dry tires.
With 23 laps remaining, Norris aced the restart despite Piastri trying to crowd him in the final sector, and the narrow dry line kept the field in position back at racing speed.
But Melbourne had one further twist. Dark clouds had gathered over Albert Park, and teams unanimously forecast a heavy downpour at any minute.
It came suddenly, arriving in the final sector just as the McLaren drivers hit the brakes for Turn 12. They both sailed wide into the gravel, and though Norris rejoined with the lead to enter pit lane for intermediate tires, Piastri slid back across the road and onto the grass at the penultimate corner, coming perilously close to beaching himself. The Australian rejoined last by the time he managed to scrabble back onto the road, his hopes of home victory thoroughly dashed.
Suddenly Verstappen was back in the lead and gambling on sticking with slicks, but as the rain intensified he too switched to intermediates, dropping back behind Norris.
Meanwhile, further back, Liam Lawson found himself in the barriers exiting Turn 1 in an incident identical to Hadjar’s formation-lap crash, and Gabriel Bortoleto hit the wall heading into the penultimate corner. Both were out of the race, and the final safety car was called to clear the track and set up the race for its grandstand finish.
The sun finally showed itself from behind the clouds as the race restarted with five laps remaining. Norris led Verstappen, George Russell, Alex Albon and Andrea Kimi Antonelli once the safety car returned to pit lane, the Briton immediately opening a second-strong lead.
The 2024 title runner-up was almost completely steadfast in defense, but a wobble through Turn 6 got Verstappen within a second and into DRS range, setting up a fraught final three laps. But with the dry line narrow and Norris all out of mistakes, Verstappen couldn’t find a way through.
George Russell completed the podium for Mercedes ahead of teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli. The Italian teenager was initially demoted back to fifth for an unsafe release, promoting Alex Albon to a sensational fourth for Williams, but that decision was subsequently overturned.
Lance Stroll was sixth in the last surviving Aston Martin ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Piastri recovered to ninth after a tremendous move around Lewis Hamilton’s outside into the super-fast Turn 9, the first part of the back chicane, demoting the Briton to 10th.
Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman completed the finishers.
When Lando Norris was facing the media on Thursday at Albert Park, he was in a relatively combative mood. The early championship favorite was berating reports that were claiming McLaren clearly has the fastest car to start the year based on …
When Lando Norris was facing the media on Thursday at Albert Park, he was in a relatively combative mood.
The early championship favorite was berating reports that were claiming McLaren clearly has the fastest car to start the year based on pre-season testing’s lap times. Norris said he was “quite surprised so many people are so short-sighted” to come to such a conclusion, and then stated Ferrari would catch a few out by being extremely quick in Melbourne.
For much of the time after he made those comments, Norris was being proven right. The Friday practice lap times – both on low fuel and high fuel – suggested Ferrari was close to McLaren, and that Mercedes wasn’t a million miles away either. Red Bull was a little more up and down, but then appeared to make a step forward in FP3 to join the party.
And as Q1 wrapped up, it definitely looked like Norris would be vindicated. 0.662s covered the top 17 cars in the first part of qualifying, and nine of the ten teams. Only Haas couldn’t make it a full house, as it is enduring a challenging weekend on Oliver Bearman’s side of the garage – the Briton failing to set a time – and ended up 1.2s off with Ocon.
Norris’ prediction looked ever-more solid as Q2 came and went and the first runs of Q3 wrapped up, but even though McLaren still held the tag of favorite for pole position it wasn’t by a major margin.
For Norris to then stick lead a front-row lock-out by the best part of 0.4s from the first non-McLaren car – Max Verstappen’s Red Bull – and over 0.7s to the lead Ferrari, was a throwback to the pre-season expectations rather than the post-practice ones.
“I expected more (from Ferrari),” Norris said. “They’ve been just as quick as us all weekend. We definitely came into qualifying expecting a fight with Ferrari, although Max was not far behind, he said he was a bit surprised to be up here. I think we expected more from Ferrari.
“People are quick to judge, ‘Oh he’s there on the timesheets, they’re slower, the car isn’t good.’ But it’s difficult out there to put a lap together. When you see how close one tenth can be it can easily be three or four positions.
“A tenth is easily within most drivers every lap, especially on a track like this. It’s about commitment, pushing that little more on the final lap, getting off the brakes, committing to corners, pushing track limits. There’s a tenth in most people. Sometimes two-tenths in taking those risks. I felt I still took a good amount of risks in the final lap to get pole.
“But I did expect Ferrari to be quicker. Whether that’s because they didn’t put good laps in or struggled more with the car, I don’t know. You’d have to ask them. We all expected Ferrari to be quicker because they have been just as quick as us all weekend. So it’s more that they just didn’t perform in qualifying for whatever reason.”
Qualifying was a pleasant surprise for Norris. Kym Illman/Getty Images
The end result of a second row of Verstappen and George Russell is enticing given their beef towards the end of last season, and then the surprise performances from Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon to secure fifth and sixth also went down well. But to see Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in seventh and eighth respectively was not in the script.
As much as Norris can be accused of trying to downplay McLaren’s advantage even after another example that points to it being a step ahead of its rivals, Leclerc suggests he might be right that qualifying didn’t paint an accurate picture.
“As soon as we started to push the car more and more and more, we found more and more and more inconsistency, which was a bit of a shame,” Leclerc said. “We lost a little bit of the pace throughout qualifying.
“Q1 we were good, Q2 a little bit less good, and Q3 we had to push a lot to try and make the lap time. But we didn’t really follow the track for some reason, so we’ve got to look into it, and maximize tomorrow.
“I think we’ve lost relative competitiveness compared to yesterday, which we know what we’ve changed, so we’ll have to look into it for sure. But other than that, I don’t know.
“As I’ve said many times before coming here, it’s only the first race of the season, and it’s only a starting point. It’s going to be a very long season. We’ve just got to stay calm, maximize points tomorrow, whatever that may be, and work from there.
“I think this car has a lot of potential, but for now we don’t seem to be in the right window. So we’ve got to find it.”
Leclerc was more downbeat of the two Ferrari drivers, despite Hamilton being almost 0.9s slower than Norris. For the new addition, this weekend is a constant learning curve and Hamilton has been so energized by his new challenge that he gives off the impression of relishing the opportunity to truly get stuck into tackling the hurdles ahead of him.
“It’s been a lot slower process for me to really build confidence in the car,” Hamilton admitted. “If you look at the high speed everywhere, I’ve been down all weekend. Charles just had it from the get go. From the minute he went out, he knew what the car does.
“For me, I was just building up to that through the weekend. I think I got a lot closer towards it. To be that close to Charles in my first qualifying session in the car against a great qualifier is [not bad].”
Sunday’s weather forecast could see a wet race that would usually be music to Hamilton’s ears given his starting spot, but he admits he still needs to learn so much about how his car operates ℃ including steering wheel switches in the wet – that he doesn’t see it as the same opportunity as usual.
But whether the rain arrives or not, McLaren team principal Andrea Stella expects Ferrari to still be a threat in race trim, and throughout this season.
“I am certainly surprised by the gap between McLaren and Ferrari,” Stella said. “But I would say more, I just don’t take that gap at face value.
“I am sure the potential of the red car is higher than for some reasons was possible to exploit today. I think we have seen that – until possibly qualifying – in every single session, even in Bahrain. So we are very realistic that Ferrari is definitely one of the main contenders for here, even if tomorrow we will see which condition we will be racing.”
Competitive sessions are the only moments that can provide true answers, and the first one of the season has done nothing to help McLaren shake off a clear favorite’s tag. But for all the talk of Ferrari’s potential, having Verstappen directly behind the two McLarens and a significant chance of rain for Sunday also serves up a combination to disrupt its strong start so far.
“For me the only thing I can say about Max in wet conditions is that he is mega,” Stella added. “So I think he has shown what quality he is able to express when the conditions are prohibitive, like in the wet.
“So we know that despite today we had a good result, in wet conditions Max can be a significant threat.
Oscar Piastri topped final practice at the Australian Grand Prix ahead of what’s shaping up to be a hotly contested battle for pole in qualifying later on Saturday. Piastri set the benchmark at 1m15.921s – just 0.006s slower than last year’s pole …
Oscar Piastri topped final practice at the Australian Grand Prix ahead of what’s shaping up to be a hotly contested battle for pole in qualifying later on Saturday.
Piastri set the benchmark at 1m15.921s – just 0.006s slower than last year’s pole time – on his fifth lap on a set of soft tires.
George Russell followed the home favorite in the order. The Mercedes driver was just 0.039s off the pace, his team having apparently solved its Friday problems extracting pace from the C5 soft compounds.
Max Verstappen made it three cars separated by less than 0.1s, lapping 0.081s slower than Piastri. His Red Bull Racing machine still looked a handful, but the Dutchman was able to coax for more speed from it than Friday after overnight changes.
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Verstappen could have gone faster still but for a wide moment at turn 11 that prompted him to abandon the lap. It was a bittersweet result for the improved Red Bull, however, with Liam Lawson boxed after just two laps with what the team described as an air-side power unit issue.
Lawson is the only driver on the grid to have never competed at Albert Park in any category but will face qualifying without having completed a hot lap this weekend.
Charles Leclerc was a disappointed fourth for Ferrari after ending Friday as the fastest driver.
The Monegasque driver complained that the car was “very oversteery” on his way to a best lap 0.267s off the pace.
“We can review a little bit what we’re asking, because that doesn’t get me any confidence too much,” he said after logging his best lap.
Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli was fifth and 0.285s off the pace, keeping himself just ahead of the competitive Williams teammates Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
Having set identical times in FP2, Sainz and Albon were closely matched again, the former just 0.006s quicker than the latter.
Lewis Hamilton continued closing the gap to teammate Leclerc, the margin between them coming down to 0.19s, but that was good enough for only eighth in the classification ahead of Yuki Tsunoda for Racing Bulls.
Lando Norris completed the top 10 after lapping 0.676s slower than his session-topping teammate, but the Briton clearly had the pace to match Piastri, his position reflective of him having rolled out of the throttle out of the final corner of his fastest lap.
On a subsequent lap he set the fastest time of the session in the final sector, strongly suggesting last year’s title runner-up should be considered a pole contender.
Sauber rookie Gabriel Bortoleto was 11th ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Isack Hadjar for Racing Bulls.
Lance Stroll was 14th for Aston Martin ahead of Alpine rookie Jack Doohan and Sauber veteran Nico Hulkenberg.
Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon completed the order in 17th and 18th respectively.
Oliver Bearman was classified 19th without a time after crashing for the second day in succession.
Bearman, who crashed his car at turn 10 in FP1 on his push lap of the weekend, made it just one corner further in the final practice session of the round before beaching himself in the gravel.
The crash was triggered by Bearman clipping the grass on approach, sending his car spinning off the road and ending his session immediately.
Fortunately the Briton avoided the barriers, but the team will have to wait until after the end of the session to receive the car and assess the damage.
“I think just wanting a bit too much too soon, which is my approach, which isn’t the right one for F1,” he admitted on Friday night. “In F2 you go straight to quali after the first practice session; in F1 you have two more. There’s no need to be straight on the limit.”
Having not heeded his own advice, Bearman will start qualifying later today having lapped the track just 12 times, none of which were fast laps.
Lawson was last after retiring to his garage with his power unit problem.
Fernando Alonso’s penalty for his driving tactics against George Russell in Australia has divided opinion up and down the grid ahead of a predicted long drivers’ briefing at the Japanese Grand Prix. Russell crashed heavily after losing control in …
Fernando Alonso’s penalty for his driving tactics against George Russell in Australia has divided opinion up and down the grid ahead of a predicted long drivers’ briefing at the Japanese Grand Prix.
Russell crashed heavily after losing control in dirty air at the high-speed Turn 6 in Melbourne, after Alonso slowed significantly on the previous straight and then accelerated towards the corner again. While not overly criticizing Alonso, Russell believes the incident required a penalty, otherwise it would “open a can of worms” about what a driver can do in defense, while the Spaniard countered that it would “100%” not be a talking point if Russell hadn’t crashed.
“If he was in Abu Dhabi with a run-off area in asphalt or whatever, I think George will rejoin the track a few meters after that and will try to have a go on me in the following lap or in the following straight,” Alonso said. “It will not be any problem.”
However, there were wildly differing opinions across the rest of the field. After Nico Hulkenberg stated he “wasn’t very impressed” by Alonso’s tactics, Charles Leclerc also felt the incident was worth of punishment.
“My view is that it’s something that we do as drivers; however, not to that extent,” Leclerc said. “What Fernando did in Australia was too much, and had to be penalized.
“I think it’s clear what we can and can’t do. You can always try and write it in a better way for it to be even clearer. However, I really believe that common sense is the way forwards. We will never be able to write in the rules every possible scenario of every situation. There might be situations where it is clear for everybody, especially the drivers, that someone deserves a penalty, even if this particular scenario is not written in the rules. So I think common sense needs to be used in certain cases, and that was one of them.”
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Lewis Hamilton was less committal but still stated he didn’t know what Alonso was attempting to achieve with his move.
“I saw one clip of it, I’ve not thought of it since,” Hamilton said. “It’s not a topic for me — it’s nothing to do with me. The stewards obviously found a reason to penalize. They’ve been asked to be stricter this year, and that’s that. I don’t understand the situation, if I try to put myself in Fernando’s position I can’t understand the maneuver, but I’m just glad that George is safe. It’s a frightening position to be in the middle of the track with cars coming around at crazy speeds.”
Lando Norris, however, feels that a major issue has been created by the fact that Alonso was penalized for his driving because it’s not clear how drivers can defend.
“It shouldn’t be a penalty,” Norris said. “I think it was clear; now it’s not. Just my opinion, maybe other drivers have different opinions. What Fernando did was odd. Like, so extreme. But I don’t think it’s even close to be regarded as a brake test. Did he brake and downshift? I don’t know the exact things of it. But should it be a penalty in any way? No.
“George, in my opinion, should have seen it coming. I don’t want to comment too much on it. George had time to see what was going on, you know. And yeah, I’m sure it’s always tougher being in the situation, that’s why I don’t like commenting on it. But that kind of thing shouldn’t have been a penalty.
“I think it’s clear that if he’s in front, like Max [Verstappen] and Hamilton [in Jeddah 2021] — that’s a brake test,” Norris said. “This was not a brake test. This was just trying to play very smart, Fernando being Fernando … and kind of being caught out about it. It was not aggressive — it was not like one meter in front of a car stopping. It was like 100 meters ahead, slowed down and just the approaching speed caught George off. Nowhere near should that have been a penalty, I would say.”
Norris agreed with Russell’s can of worms argument, but felt that the penalty had opened a different can… Simon Galloway/Motorsport Images
Lance Stroll, too, was firmly in his Aston Martin teammate’s corner, saying drivers should not be punished for incidents where no contact is made.
“I don’t think he did anything stupid, he was just preparing the exit of the corner,” Stroll said. “For me it was ridiculous. To get a drive-through penalty for an incident that doesn’t even involve any contact between the cars or anything like that, I didn’t really understand it.
“I just think a penalty in general was kind of a joke. Where do you draw that line between driving unnecessarily slowly and just being like tactical? I think there’s been instances in the past where guys have slowed down to try and get DRS, or try and avoid DRS, and those guys weren’t given penalties and stuff.
“We’re lifting and coasting in the race, so if you lift and coast for 500 meters going into a corner, does that mean you’re driving unnecessarily slowly? I don’t know, where’s the sweet spot for that? Because now we’re having to do all those things anyway for tires and fuel.
“If you ask me, Fernando did a big lift and coast — it was tactical,” Stroll insisted. “Tires are also getting tricky at the end of the race and he wanted to get a good exit out of that corner. It’s not like he braked and George ran into the back of him. George did the corner and didn’t run into the back of him at all — unfortunately lost some downforce and had a moment, that’s racing.”
Stroll expects the situation to create a major talking point in the drivers’ briefing on Friday night.
“To be honest, I didn’t read the full explanation, I just saw the video. As a driver, I have my view on it. There’s going to be, I’m sure, a very long drivers’ meeting this weekend — which I’m not looking forward to, because they’re already too long,” he said. “But I’m sure there’ll be a whole long list of explanations.
“Seriously, the race director should just give his points, and then whoever wants to stick around and talk about the color of the clouds for the next hour and a half can stick around, and whoever wants to leave can leave!”
