Lando Norris survived a downpour and a late rally from defending champion Max Verstappen to start his season in style by winning a wet and wild Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
With 13 laps remaining, both Norris and Oscar Piastri, who was shadowing his McLaren teammate in second place, ran off the road and through the gravel in the slippery conditions.
Norris was able to pull into the pits to move back on to the intermediate tyres and salvage victory, but Piastri ended up on the grass at the penultimate corner, ending McLaren’s hopes of a one-two. He would later cross the line in ninth in his home race.
Norris took the flag just 0.8 seconds clear of Verstappen with George Russell third for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton finished a disappointing 10th on his Ferrari debut.
Williams’ Alex Albon was fourth, one place ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
“It was amazing, it was a tough race, especially with Max [Verstappen] behind me,” said Norris. “I was pushing especially the last two laps which was a little bit stressful but an amazing way to start the year.
“It was a tough one because we went off and made some big mistakes, it was just tricky conditions but these are the ones that are enjoyable, fun and unpredictable, but this time we got it right and I’m very happy.
“We got it wrong a lot last year so I guess we learn from our mistakes. It’s still only round one but dealing with the pressure with Max and Oscar [Piastri] behind me, I was pushing the whole way through. I could relax inside but I couldn’t relax by how much I was pushing so it was a tough one.
“To not make too many mistakes and to not have a mistake that cost me anything I guess I can take a little bit of credit for that. A tough and challenging race but a big thanks to McLaren because they’ve given me an amazing car.”
The late chaos had briefly promoted Hamilton to the lead after Ferrari kept him out on slick rubber. But the seven-time world champion was then forced to follow the rest of the field and move on to wets.
Hamilton was furious with Ferrari’s decision to keep him on the slick tyres.
“I didn’t think it was going to rain much,” said Hamilton. “We missed a big opportunity.”
Hamilton dropped to ninth, swearing when he was told he had fallen so far back, before teammate Charles Leclerc and then Piastri passed him on the final lap.
The opening round of the season started in wild fashion after rookie Isack Hadjar crashed into the barriers on the second corner of the formation lap.
The French-Algerian was in tears and received a consoling arm from Hamilton’s father, Anthony, as he made his way back to the pits.
When the race got under way after a 15-minute delay, Verstappen, starting third, was much quicker than Norris and Piastri off the line, but Norris moved aggressively to his right to hold off the Dutchman.
Verstappen swooped round the outside of Piastri to take second place before rookie Jack Doohan put his Alpine in the wall. Out came the safety car on lap one, before Carlos Sainz crashed into the barriers at the final corner with three drivers out before the start of the second lap.
On lap 17, Piastri moved clear of Verstappen and then set about reducing Norris’ three-second advantage.
By lap 30, Piastri was right on Norris’ gearbox before he was controversially ordered to “hold position” by McLaren’s pit-wall.
“I am faster, but OK,” came the Australian’s response. After falling two seconds behind Norris he was then told he was “free to race” his teammate.
Moments later, Fernando Alonso was in the wall at Turn 11 leading to a second safety car. With the track drying out, the field pitted for slick rubber before the race restarted again on lap 41.
But the rain arrived again just three laps later with Norris and Piastri running off the road. Norris came in for wets, dropping him to eighth. Verstappen assumed the lead and attempted to stay out on dry tyres, but had to stop two laps later for intermediate tyres.
That promoted Hamilton to the lead but with the rain continuing to fall, the seven-time world champion had no grip on his dry tyres and Norris was back in the lead.
On lap 47, Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto both spun out leading to a third safety car, which came in with six laps remaining.
Verstappen got to within half-a-second of Norris, but the British driver was able to keep him at bay to seal a fine win following a dramatic first round of the new campaign.
“It was a difficult race, of course, but at the end, it was fun,” said Verstappen. “Lando had a moment on entry of Turn Six, so he lost momentum there, so that's why I got close and got DRS. I got close but it's very hard to pass around here. It was fun, those last laps, pushing, at least when you're fighting for the win. I'm just very happy to bring it home, score good points. This is a decent starting point for us.
“It started to rain a bit, so it's a bit like a panic, I need to box, so they went in and I stayed out, the first lap was alright but the weather continued on the other side of the track as well. We then had to box, but at the end of the day if we had boxed one lap earlier, we would have still been P2 anyway.
“It was worth a gamble. It was quite spicy on the slick tyres. It was alright in the end. This is where I expected to be. In the first stint we were lacking a bit of pace to the McLaren. It is 18 points more than I had here last year, so I'll take that.”
