Norris triumphs at chaotic Australian Grand Prix as Piastri suffers home heartbreak

Lando Norris has won the season-opening race of the 2025 F1 championship, triumphing at a chaotic Australian Grand Prix.

The Briton converted his pole position to victory while team-mate Oscar Piastri missed out on a strong result following late-race drama.

Max Verstappen secured second place for Red Bull as the Dutchman got his latest title defence off to a strong start.

The final place on the podium went to George Russell as Mercedes enjoyed a strong opening round to the campaign.

Early race carnage

The race got underway on time at 15:00 local, however Isack Hadjar only got to the first corner before spinning his Racing Bulls car into the wall.

It resulted in a delay that lasted over 10 minutes before the race eventually managed to get underway.

Norris held the lead off the line while Piastri dropped behind Verstappen at the opening corner after getting out of shape.

However, the race was soon neutralised as Jack Doohan and Carlos Sainz became victims of the slippery track surface as the duo had separate spins into the wall, bringing the early retirement tally to three drivers.

On lap eight, the safety car peeled back into the pit lane, allowing the racing to get back underway.

A fourth retirement of the race almost came before the one-third point of the race as Kimi Antonelli spun at Turn 4 - however he managed to keep it out of the barrier.

At the front of the grid, Verstappen made a mistake at Turn 11 on lap 17 of the race and ran wide, gifting a second position back to Piastri.

From there, Norris and Piastri flexed their muscles and built a considerable gap to Verstappen in the laps that followed.

Pit stops after another safety car

As the McLaren drivers built up an advantage over Verstappen, Piastri slowly closed the gap to Norris for the lead.

Around the mid-point of the race, Piastri was instructed to hold position as the track began to dry out slightly and while they cleared the first of the lapped traffic.

A mistake on lap 32 at Turn 6 for Piastri relieved the pressure on Norris as the Australian dropped back by two seconds before upping his pace once again. McLaren then informed their drivers that they were free to race.

However, another safety car was called when Fernando Alonso crashed on the exit of Turn 6 when the car turned on him over a kerb.

It prompted the entire field to peel into the pit lane for a stop, with the field switching to dry weather tyres.

Verstappen stuck on a set of medium tyres, a step softer than the hards fitted to the McLarens. 

Another predicament arose as the drivers were warned of a heavy shower that was threatening to hit the track, albeit for a very short period of time.

Chaos to the end

The race resumed on lap 42 with the drivers tentatively getting back up to speed on the dry tyres.

As the rain hit the circuit, Piastri slid off the circuit in the final sector, as did team-mate Norris - however Norris managed to keep his car off the grass to peel into the pit lane for intermediates while Piastri’s race was undone by the mistake.

Verstappen took the lead of the race and was initially told to stay out on the track before he came into the pit lane.

As the conditions worsened, Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto spun out of the race to add to the list of retirements.

Norris re-took the lead of the race before the safety car was called with Ferrari’s gamble to keep Hamilton and Leclerc on the soft tyres failing to pay off. They pitted under the safety car and dropped to the fringes of the points.

Lap 52 saw the race get back underway and in the final laps, Verstappen closed up to the rear of the McLaren driver but couldn't find his way past his rival.

Russell took the final spot on the podium while rookie team-mate Kimi Antonelli crossed the line in fourth - however a five-second time penalty demoted him to fifth and promoting Alex Albon in the Williams up one position.

Lance Stroll was the lead Aston Martin in sixth, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg who bagged a significant result for Stake in the opening round.

Ferrari's opening round culminated in eighth and 10th for Leclerc and Hamilton respectively.

Having dropped out of the points after his restart, Piastri recovered to ninth to bring home two points.