2025 Australian Grand Prix

The 2025 Australian Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025) was a Formula One motor race that was held on 16 March 2025 at the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, Victoria. It was the first round of the 2025 Formula One World Championship.
Lando Norris in the McLaren won the race from pole position, ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull and George Russell in the Mercedes. Norris' victory marked McLaren's first at Melbourne since Jenson Button's victory in 2012. Debutants Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls and Gabriel Bortoleto of Sauber both retired due to accidents, the former on the formation lap, and Andrea Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes finished fourth.
The event was held at Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne for the 28th time in the circuit's history, across the weekend of 14–16 March. The Grand Prix was the first round of the 2025 Formula One World Championship and the 39th running of the Australian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship. This was also the first Australian Grand Prix to be held as the season opener since 2019.
The drivers and teams were the same as published in the season entry list, with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.
Oliver Bearman, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Jack Doohan, Gabriel Bortoleto, Liam Lawson, and Isack Hadjar made their debuts as full-time drivers with Haas, Mercedes, Alpine, Sauber, Red Bull Racing, and Racing Bulls, respectively.
The Grand Prix also marked Lewis Hamilton's first as a Ferrari driver, after spending twelve seasons with Mercedes, as well as his first season without a Mercedes power unit. Esteban Ocon, Nico Hülkenberg, and Carlos Sainz Jr. joined Haas, Sauber, and Williams, respectively.
Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds, designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively, for teams to use at the event.
Three free practice sessions were held for the event. The first free practice session was held on 14 March 2025, at 12:30 local time (UTC+11), and was topped by Lando Norris in the McLaren ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr. in the Williams and Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari. Two red flags were observed; one for gravel on track and one for Oliver Bearman in the Haas spinning and hitting the wall, destroying the front of his car.
The second free practice session was held on the same day, at 16:00 local time, and was topped by Leclerc ahead of Oscar Piastri in the McLaren and his teammate Norris. Due to his aforementioned first practice crash, Bearman was not able to participate as the monocoque needed repairs, as well as changes being made to his gearbox and power unit.
The third free practice session was held on 15 March 2025, at 12:30 local time, and was topped by Piastri ahead of George Russell in the Mercedes and Max Verstappen in the Red Bull Racing. A red flag was observed, once again for Bearman. Early into the session, the rookie ran wide at turn 11 and spun his Haas into the gravel. He was unable to free himself, and he was left without a time. Liam Lawson, Verstappen's teammate, was unable to set a lap time due to having hydraulic issues.
Qualifying was held on 15 March 2025, at 16:00 local time (UTC+11), and determined the starting grid order for the race.
Notes
The race was held on 16 March 2025, and was scheduled to start at 15:00 local time (UTC+11), but was delayed to 15:15 due to Isack Hadjar's crash on the formation lap. The race was set to be run for 58 laps, but was shortened by one lap due to the aborted start procedure.
The race was held under changing, intermediate conditions. Isack Hadjar crashed his Racing Bull during the formation lap, resulting in an abandoned start and 10-minute delay. Lando Norris in the McLaren led a majority of the race. He briefly lost the lead to Max Verstappen when Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri lost control in intermediate conditions, with Norris boxing shortly afterward. Having lost control, Piastri was beached for a short time before he freed himself, dropping to thirteenth and later recovering to ninth after a late pass on Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen, in the Red Bull, was trailing Norris as the race reached its closing stages. Norris kept Verstappen behind to win the Grand Prix, bringing McLaren its first win in Australia since Jenson Button did so for the team in 2012. In doing so, Norris led the Drivers' Championship for the first time in his career, and broke Verstappen's reign in the lead of the championship, which he had held since the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix. Having been briefly penalised, dropping him to fifth before his team lodged an appeal, which was upheld, Andrea Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes recovered twelve places from his sixteenth-place start to finish in fourth, and his points finish made him the second-youngest Formula One driver to have scored a point.
Six retirements were observed, all for accidents on track, for which three safety car periods were observed: Hadjar, during the formation lap, Jack Doohan for Alpine, Carlos Sainz Jr. for Williams, Fernando Alonso for Aston Martin, Gabriel Bortoleto for Sauber, and Verstappen's teammate Liam Lawson. Sainz's teammate, Alex Albon, scored a highest finish of fifth for Williams, the first time the team has done such since the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix. Alonso's teammate Lance Stroll finished in sixth, and Sauber's Nico Hülkenberg seventh, placing them above Ferrari, who had a disappointing season opener with Charles Leclerc finishing in eighth and Hamilton tenth. The Haas duo of Oliver Bearman and Esteban Ocon rounded off the bottom two.
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