A drama in three acts in Melbourne, with Norris the star of the show

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 – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT   

 “What a start to the 75^th 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.