F1 starts 2025 with a bang in Australia wet chaos! Lando Norris wins with a spectacular drive
There was a lot of hype coming into this season and the season opener in Melbourne definitely didn't fail to meet those expectations.
Lando Norris with a lights to flag win
What a drive from the young brit in McLaren, a commanding performance from Lando Norris to not only lead from Lap 1 to the end but also hold off immense pressure from his championship rival last year Max Verstappen and his teammate Oscar Piastri.
There were many instances in the race where it looked like he didn’t have the pace to keep a hold of the lead, but when things looked to be going downhill for him, he kept his cool and held of immense pressure and survived the ultimate chaos that was the Australian GP. He handled his safety car restarts beautifully.
Action speak louder then words, Lando made a statement this weekend after clinching pole, getting fastest lap of the race and winning the race whilst fending off Max all the way to Lap 57— if he can do this for the remainder of the season, his title bid looks very strong.
Heartbreak for home favourite
It was a day to forget for Aussie’s home favourites Oscar Piastri and Jack Doohan. Oscar Piastri looked extremely quick all race long and the quicker of the two McLaren in those light rain, intermediate conditions.
He lost out to Max on Lap 1 but made amends for it after forcing Verstappen into a mistake into Turn 11 later into the Grand Prix. He continued to claw back at the gap to Norris after losing time behind Max, applying a lot of pressure
This was until more rain forecasted for Lap 44, after the safety car restart, conditions looked torrential plus cars were on slick tires amplifying the difficulty. Both Mclarens went off track after Turn 12 with Piastri on the receiving end and sliding onto the grass in front of his grand stands.
He had great pace out there.. but it was just not meant to be, a weekend to forget for the young Australian.
Rough ride for the Rookies
With over a quarter of the grid consisting of rookies and with torrential conditions, this was to be expected. Lawson, Bortoleto, Doohan and Hadjar all crashing out of the race.
Isack Hadjar didn’t even make it to the start of the race, he barely made it through any of the formation lap, getting a huge kick of wheel spin out of turn 1 and destroying his rear wing into the wall.
The young French - Algerian drive was absolutely distraught, balling his eyes out with his helmet on. As he walked through the paddock, Anthony Hamilton father of Lewis Hamilton comforted him after his incident.
A moment to forget for the rookie, I’m sure there’s more to come from him because his pace all weekend was very promising.
With all the drama of the added rain in Lap 44, there a major reshuffle of the order and at one points it looked like Lawson could’ve scored some good points after a disaster of a Qualifying for him.
All his damage limitation work had been undone however as he lost the back end out of Turn 1 and broke his rear wing off.
Strategy blunder for Ferrari
Ferrari may have possibly walked away from this weekend with a double podium finish but ended up with a P8 and P10 for Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton respectively.
A late call to switch onto intermediates with the class 2 and 3 rain on lap 44 meant both drivers were at the back of the field for the final safety car restart.
They came into this race as one of the favourites to win this race and take the championship to McLaren. At least for this race, it doesn't seem to be the case and they couldn’t even keep up with the Mercedes of George Russell.
Spectacular comeback drive for Mercedes wonder boy
If there was ever a time to shut down the doubters, it was today. Antonelli has earnt the respect of many fans out there with his star performance from p16 to p4 and the top performing rookie of this weekend.
His debut race seemed to have thrown everything at him today, with changeable conditions, from drizzle to dry to heavier rain, aborted formation laps, several safety car restarts. The mental and performance capacity he put on display today was something to admire with his pace equalling that of George Russell early on in the race.
Excluding a spin, it was a great debut for Antonelli. If he’s able to work on his Qualifying pace and sharpen his craft, he’s going to be a force to be reckoned with.
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