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Tyres NorthamptonFormula One 2025 began by delivering an outstanding opening that somehow matched and exceeded fans' sky-high expectations heading into the new season. Rain, crashes, safety cars, and Max Verstappen's 63-race championship lead ending all kicked the year off in style.
Lando Norris led through the chaos to take home his fifth career win and fan the flames that a season-long title fight is possible for 2025. It was the Briton's first back-to-back victory, starting this year as 2024 ended, and confirming that McLaren's championship glory wasn't a one-off.
Indeed, the Woking team locked out the front row, but the tricky conditions caught out home hero Oscar Piastri to leave only one papaya car on the podium. George Russell was the one to inherit the silverware as he began to lead Mercedes for the first season, with Max Verstappen jumping from P3 to P2 after Piastri skidded off.
Piastri wasn't the only driver who fell foul of the rain. Isack Hadjar had a nightmare debut, crashing out after just two corners on the formation lap. The Frenchman's slow-speed spin was an early indicator of how little grip Melbourne's Albert Park Circuit offered. Hadjar might've been the unfortunate one to grab the unwanted title of 2025's first retirement, but he was far from the last to hit the wall once the race got underway.
Norris, who seems to have shrugged off his reputation for losing the lead on the first lap, kept his McLaren in P1 through the opening corners. Verstappen filed in behind, with Piastri giving chase to regain P2, but any jostling for the lead had to wait. Jack Doohan spun on the run to Turn 6 and hit the barriers to trigger a Safety Car.
Rookie inexperience wasn't the root cause for these crashes, as Carlos Sainz soon demonstrated. The veteran Spaniard ended his Williams debut in the wall at Turn 16, even at the reduced Safety Car speeds. Fortunately for those who remained in the running, the rainfall reduced while under the Safety Car, and a slender dry line began to appear once green flag conditions resumed.
The sliding moments continued with the race underway; Andrea Kimi Antonelli pirouetted but avoided the walls, and Max Verstappen ran deep at Turn 11 in a rare mistake for the champion. Both drivers avoided damage, but each lost a position, with Verstappen crucially allowing Piastri ahead to resume a McLaren 1-2.
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The equally-matched McLarens extended a large gap to Verstappen and looked untouchable out front, but their advantage soon ended. F1's most experienced driver, Fernando Alonso, was the next to smash into the wall as the race ticked past half distance. The resulting Safety Car triggered a flurry of pit stops, and almost all cars switched to dry-weather Pirellis.
Slick tyres were the right call, but fresh rain soon swept over the circuit. With all drivers trying to time their pit stop at the perfect moment, the dry rubber became problematic. Each McLaren driver fell off the track in the final sector to dramatically different consequences. Norris quickly recovered and dived into the pits for Intermediate Pirelli tyres, but Piastri got stranded on the grass. The Aussie eventually inched back to the tarmac but had fallen to the back to break his home fans' hearts.
Subsequent split strategies turned the race upside down, with Verstappen, the Ferraris, and some midfielders trying to delay their pit stop for dry Pirelli tyres for another lap. Norris, Russell, and a high-flying Alex Albon opted for the Intermediates, which soon became the correct decision. While Verstappen pitted on the next lap, Temporary leaders Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc became rolling roadblocks on dry tyres as the frontrunners eased by them, but one last twist limited their descent.
Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto became the third and fourth full-season rookies to crash out, each in separate incidents. With Yuki Tsunoda qualifying an impressive P5, Lawson crashing his Red Bull in his first race for the team will heap pressure on the Kiwi driver. The resulting third and final Safety Car left the race with a six-lap dash to the finish line.
Norris held his nerve against Verstappen to win under pressure from the Red Bull and top the standings. Russell, who drove a quiet but assured race, claimed P3, with his new teammate Antonelli storming from P16 to P4 to mark his debut. Albon scored an excellent P5, with Leclerc, Piastri, and Hamilton rounding out the final places in the top 10.
The season's second round is just days away, as the Chinese GP comes this weekend. The Shanghai track will pose a very different challenge for the teams and drivers and should let us see how representative this first race was. McLaren may have had the advantage Down Under, but this 24-race season is poised to be as unpredictable as the opening Grand Prix's 57 laps.