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Lando Norris won the Australian
Grand Prix starting from pole position, but it was far from straightforward,
coming at the end of what was a thrilling race, particularly in the closing
stages. The weather had a lot to do with it, pretty much dividing the race
into three parts – the first in the wet, the second in the dry and then the
final part once more in the wet. Up until half-distance it looked like
McLaren were heading for a dominant one-two finish, but then at one point it
seemed the win might escape them, but they still got both drivers home in
the points. This is Norris’ fifth win and number 190 for the team run by Zak
Brown and Andrea Stella, it’s twelfth victory in Australia. Norris could
also take pride in taking the second hat-trick of his career, clinching the
win, pole position and the fastest race lap.
Joining Norris on the
podium were four-time world champion Max Verstappen (Red Bull) finishing
0”895 behind the winner, with another Englishman, George Russell crossing
the line third in his Mercedes, 8”481 behind.
THE DAY ON TRACK:
With light rain falling but gradually easing off, all drivers lined up for
the formation lap on the intermediates, apart from Lance Stroll who opted
for a set of extreme wets on his Aston Martin. However, Isack Hadjar (Racing
Bulls) went off the track so the start was aborted and by the time the race
resumed after around ten minutes or so, the Canadian driver had changed to
the same rubber as his colleagues. For the first seven laps, another Aston
Martin was in the lead, but it was the DB9 Safety Car driven by Bernd
Maylander, called out immediately following crashes for Jack Doohan (Alpine)
and Carlos Sainz (Williams).
In between that first restart and a
second Safety Car, prompted by Fernando Alonso who hit the barriers in his
Aston Martin, all drivers had used the same set of intermediates.
This time, the appearance of the Safety Car triggered a switch to slicks,
with the remaining 16 drivers going for either Medium or Hard. However, the
rain returned which made it impossible to judge the relative performance of
the two compounds, because the entire field, either sooner or later, had to
pit again for intermediates, which they then kept to the chequered flag.
MARIO ISOLA - MOTORSPORT DIRECTOR
“What a start to the 75th season of Formula 1! In the space of just over a
hundred minutes we experienced so many emotions with the result hanging in
the balance to the very last lap, not just for the win, but also for the
other top ten places.
“From a purely technical point of view, today
we were able to see how the 2025 version of the intermediate performed,
proving to be a tyre that allowed the drivers to push flat out and for many
laps even on a track where a dry racing line had emerged. There was only a
little bit of graining on the front left, the tyre that gets the most stress
at this track, but in general, we saw that degradation was minimal. There’s
not much to say about the slicks because the stints were pretty short,
between ten to 14 laps meaning it’s hard to give a complete evaluation of
their performance.
“Now, along with the ten teams in the
championship, we are preparing for the second round of the season, already
next week in Shanghai. It’s a very different track to Melbourne, where we
will find a brand-new track surface and at a Sprint weekend, so it’s an
extra challenge right from the second race.”
Formula 2
The Feature Race was cancelled because of the adverse weather conditions.
The next round takes place over the Bahrain Grand Prix weekend at the Sakhir
circuit from 11 to 13 April.
Formula 3
Rain and the Safety Car were the main players in the Feature Race, with
several neutralisations and then a red flag which shortened it by two laps
(four for the final count). Brazil’s Rafael Camara emerged victorious having
controlled every restart, fending off the attentions of Danish driver Noah
Stromsted, his Trident team-mate. Joining them in third place on the podium
was France’s Théophile Nael (Van Amersfoort Racing).
Pirelli’s 16”
wet weather tyre, developed specifically for the new generation of car in
this category, performed as expected with good warm-up despite the various
interruptions, without showing signs of aquaplaning while delivering quite
consistent grip during the race. The next round takes place alongside the
Bahrain Grand Prix, at the Sakhir circuit from 11 to 13 April.
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