Lando Norris gained the season-opening Australian Grand Prix from the pole place. And it was hardly a boring path to victory.
Norris in some way regained the lead within the final 15 laps of the the race as a rain bathe hit the observe. The race began beneath moist situations with everything of the sector on the intermediate tire. A crash by Fernando Alonso allowed groups to alter to dry tires beneath warning. And that’s when issues received wacky.
Not lengthy after the race resumed following Alonso’s crash, the rain hit once more. Norris and his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri each went off the observe — and Piastri received the worst of it. As Piastri received caught within the grass, Norris hit the pits for a set of intermediate tires.
Max Verstappen went from third to first as he stayed out on dry tires, however he was quickly pressured to pit once more for intermediates. That cycled Lewis Hamilton to the lead in his first race for Ferrari.
However as Hamilton tip-toed across the moist observe on dry tires, Norris was selecting his manner again by the sector and received previous Hamilton earlier than Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto crashed in separate incidents. That pressured one other yellow flag as Norris stored the lead and Hamilton and his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc wanted to pit for inters and had their technique try ruined.
The 57-lap race resumed with six laps to go after the twin crashes and Norris held off Verstappen for the win.
Norris had the race in hand earlier than Alonso’s crash as Piastri was a cushty second. The 2 McLaren vehicles had comfortably dropped Verstappen in third and appeared nicely on their approach to a dominating efficiency to again up McLaren’s 2024 constructor’s title.
As an alternative, Piastri completed tenth after he was lastly capable of get himself unstuck from the grass after spinning out and heading to pit lane for intermediate tires.
The situations had been extremely unkind to F1’s rookies as 4 drivers with lower than a season’s value of expertise crashed out. RB’s Isack Hadjar crashed on the formation lap when his automotive snapped free within the moist and didn’t even get to start out the race. Alpine’s Jack Doohan crashed on the primary lap after which Carlos Sainz crashed beneath that warning just some moments later in his first race from Williams after being changed at Ferrari by Hamilton.
Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli completed the race in fourth however was labeled fifth after a five-second penalty for an unsafe launch on his remaining pit cease.
1. Lando Norris, McLaren
2. Max Verstappen, Crimson 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, RB
13. Esteban Ocon, Haas
14. Ollie Bearman, Haas
Not labeled: Liam Lawson (Crimson Bull), Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber), Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Carlos Sainz (Williams), Jack Doohan (Alpine), Isack Hadjar (RB)
