| 2025 Australian Grand Prix | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
Race 1 of 24 in the2025 Formula One World Championship
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 Layout of the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit | ||||
| Race details | ||||
| Date | 16 March 2025 | |||
| Official name | Formula 1 Louis VuittonAustralian Grand Prix 2025 | |||
| Location | Albert Park Circuit, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia | |||
| Course | Temporary street circuit | |||
| Course length | 5.278 km (3.280 miles) | |||
| Distance | 57 laps, 300.846 km (186.937 miles) | |||
| Scheduled distance | 58 laps, 306.124 km (190.217 miles) | |||
| Weather | Light rain | |||
| Attendance | 465,498[1] | |||
| Pole position | ||||
| Driver | McLaren-Mercedes | |||
| Time | 1:15.096 | |||
| Fastest lap | ||||
| Driver |  Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | ||
| Time | 1:22.167 on lap 43 | |||
| Podium | ||||
| First | McLaren-Mercedes | |||
| Second | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | |||
| Third | Mercedes | |||
Lap leaders | ||||
The2025 Australian Grand Prix (officially known as theFormula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025) was aFormula Onemotor race that was held on 16 March 2025 at theAlbert Park Circuit inMelbourne, Victoria, Australia. It was the first round of the2025 Formula One World Championship.
Lando Norris in theMcLaren won the race from pole position, ahead ofMax Verstappen in theRed Bull andGeorge Russell in theMercedes. Norris' victory marked McLaren's first at Melbourne sinceJenson Button's victory in2012. DebutantsIsack Hadjar ofRacing Bulls, andGabriel Bortoleto ofSauber both retired due to accidents, the former on theformation lap. Meanwhile,Kimi Antonelli of Mercedes finished fourth from a sixteenth-place start.
The event was held atAlbert Park Circuit inMelbourne for the 28th time in the circuit's history, across the weekend of 14–16 March.[2] The Grand Prix was the first round of the2025 Formula One World Championship and the 39th running of theAustralian Grand Prix as a round of the Formula One World Championship.[3][4] This was also the first Australian Grand Prix to be held as the season opener since2019.[5]
The drivers and teams were the same as published in the season entry list, with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.[6]
Oliver Bearman,Kimi Antonelli,Jack Doohan,Gabriel Bortoleto,Liam Lawson, andIsack Hadjar made their debuts as full-time drivers withHaas,Mercedes,Alpine,Sauber,Red Bull Racing, andRacing Bulls, respectively.[7]
The Grand Prix also markedLewis Hamilton's first as aFerrari driver, after spending twelve seasons with Mercedes, as well as his first season without aMercedes power unit.[8]Esteban Ocon,Nico Hülkenberg, andCarlos Sainz Jr. joined Haas, Sauber, andWilliams, respectively.[9][10][11]
Tyre supplierPirelli brought the C3, C4, and C5 tyre compounds, designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively, for teams to use at the event.[12]
Threefree 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).[13]Ferrari'sCharles Leclerc was first early on in the session, a couple of tenths clear ofMercedes driverGeorge Russell, those times having been posted on medium compound tyres.Jack Doohan ofAlpine caused an early red flag after running wide through turn 6, bring gravel onto the track which needed to be cleared. With times starting to come in from soft compound tyre runs,Oliver Bearman ofHaas lost control of his car exiting the turn 9–10 chicane and hit the left hand side wall, bringing out a second red flag. By the end of the opening practice session,Lando Norris,Carlos Sainz Jr.,Charles Leclerc,Oscar Piastri, andMax Verstappen made up the top five.[14]
The second free practice session was held on the same day, at 16:00 local time.[13]Oliver Bearman did not participate in the session as the Haas team was continuing to repair the car following his heavy crash in the first practice session.Nico Hülkenberg ofSauber ran into a gravel trap in turn 6, resulting in the car being called back into the pit lanes for a floor check. By the end of the session,Charles Leclerc held onto first, withOscar Piastri,Lando Norris,Yuki Tsunoda andLewis Hamilton making up second to fifth.[15]
The third free practice session was held on 15 March 2025, at 12:30 local time.[13]Oliver Bearman spun the car at turn 11, getting stuck in the gravel and necessitating another red flag.Red Bull Racing'sLiam Lawson also was forced to retire due to a power unit system problem. The session ended with Piastri fastest, ahead of Russell, Verstappen, Leclerc andKimi Antonelli.[16]
Qualifying was held on 15 March 2025, at 16:00 local time (UTC+11), and determined the starting grid order for the race.[13]
The first session (Q1) ran for 18 minutes, eliminating cars that finished 16th or lower. The first flying laps began, most of the grid starting onsoft tyres.Lando Norris ofMcLaren went fastest with his effort of 1:16.003, just over one-hundredth of a second clear ofMax Verstappen.[17] AsFernando Alonso slotted hisAston Martin into fifth,Liam Lawson triggered a yellow flag afteroversteering hisRB21 into the gravel. He later ran into the grass as well, resulting in him qualifying 18th.Kimi Antonelli also had his fair share of issues in the gravel, dragging theMercedes rookie down into a danger zone of fourteenth, and would eventually be pushed down to sixteenth. By the end of Q1, Antonelli,Nico Hülkenberg,Liam Lawson,Esteban Ocon, andOliver Bearman were knocked out, making up grid places 16–20.
The second session (Q2) lasted 15 minutes, eliminating cars that finished 11th to 15th.Max Verstappen headed out for Q2 first, setting the initial pace beforeOscar Piastri andLando Norris took the fastest times.Aston Martin'sFernando Alonso had a run in with the kerb, returning to the pits without completing a lap.Gabriel Bortoleto ofSauber made an impressive save, avoiding what could have been a detrimental crash, however Lewis Hamilton brought out the yellow flags, the seven-time World Champion spinning out.[17] This yellow flag was detrimental to the drivers in the bottom of the field, Bortoleto included. Norris held onto the quickest lap at 1:15.415. After Q2,Isack Hadjar,Fernando Alonso,Lance Stroll,Jack Doohan, andGabriel Bortoleto were knocked out, and landed places 11–15 on the grid respectively.
The final 12 minute session (Q3) determinedpole position to tenth.Charles Leclerc initially looked to have secured provisional pole beforeMax Verstappen – just eight-hundredths clear on a 1:15.671 – as well asGeorge Russell bettered his effort.Lando Norris, meanwhile, had his time deleted due to exceeding track limits.[17] As a queue formed in the pits,Oscar Piastri found himself in the lead, and beat current World champion Verstappen by four-tenths of a second before Norris set a time 0.084 seconds faster to takepole position.
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 toIsack 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.[13]
The race was held under changing, intermediate conditions.Isack Hadjar crashed hisRacing Bull during the formation lap, resulting in an abandoned start and 10-minute delay.Lando Norris in theMcLaren led a majority of the race.[21] He briefly lost the lead toMax Verstappen when Norris and teammateOscar 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 onFerrari'sLewis Hamilton.[22]
Verstappen, in theRed 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 sinceJenson Button did so for the team in2012. 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 the2022 Spanish Grand Prix.[23] Having been briefly penalised, dropping him to fifth before his team lodged an appeal, which was upheld,[24]Kimi Antonelli in theMercedes 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.[25]
Six retirements were observed, all for accidents on track, for which three safety car periods were observed: Hadjar, during the formation lap,Jack Doohan forAlpine,Carlos Sainz Jr. forWilliams,Fernando Alonso forAston Martin,Gabriel Bortoleto forSauber, and Verstappen's teammateLiam Lawson. Sainz's teammate,Alexander Albon, scored a highest finish of fifth for Williams, the first time the team has done such since the2021 Belgian Grand Prix. Alonso's teammateLance Stroll finished in sixth, and Sauber'sNico Hülkenberg seventh, placing them above Ferrari, who had a disappointing season opener withCharles Leclerc finishing in eighth and Hamilton tenth.[26] TheHaas duo ofOliver Bearman andEsteban Ocon rounded off the bottom two.[21]
| Pos. | No. | Driver | Constructor | Laps | Time/Retired | Grid | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren-Mercedes | 57 | 1:42:06.304 | 1 | 25 |
| 2 | 1 |  Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | 57 | +0.895 | 3 | 18 |
| 3 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 57 | +8.481 | 4 | 15 |
| 4 | 12 |  Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 57 | +10.135 | 16 | 12 |
| 5 | 23 |  Alexander Albon | Williams-Mercedes | 57 | +12.773 | 6 | 10 |
| 6 | 18 |  Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes | 57 | +17.413 | 13 | 8 |
| 7 | 27 |  Nico Hülkenberg | Kick Sauber-Ferrari | 57 | +18.423 | 17 | 6 |
| 8 | 16 |  Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 57 | +19.826 | 7 | 4 |
| 9 | 81 |  Oscar Piastri | McLaren-Mercedes | 57 | +20.448 | 2 | 2 |
| 10 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | 57 | +22.473 | 8 | 1 |
| 11 | 10 |  Pierre Gasly | Alpine-Renault | 57 | +26.502 | 9 | |
| 12 | 22 |  Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT | 57 | +29.884 | 5 | |
| 13 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Haas-Ferrari | 57 | +33.161 | 19 | |
| 14 | 87 | Oliver Bearman | Haas-Ferrari | 57 | +40.351 | PL | |
| Ret | 30 |  Liam Lawson | Red Bull Racing-Honda RBPT | 46 | Accident | PL | |
| Ret | 5 |  Gabriel Bortoleto | Kick Sauber-Ferrari | 45 | Accident | 15 | |
| Ret | 14 |  Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco-Mercedes | 32 | Accident | 12 | |
| Ret | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Williams-Mercedes | 0 | Accident | 10 | |
| Ret | 7 | Jack Doohan | Alpine-Renault | 0 | Accident | 14 | |
| DNS1 | 6 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT | 0 | Accident | —1 | |
| Source:[19][27][28][29] | |||||||
Notes
Norris' victory made him the championship leader for the first time in his career, ending Verstappen's streak of leading the Formula One World Drivers' Championship continuously since the2022 Spanish Grand Prix. McLaren took the Constructors Championship lead with 27 points, with Mercedes in second,[a] also on 27 and Red Bull trailing both of them by nine points in third.
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[...] organisers of the Australian Grand Prix revealed on Friday that the 2025 edition of the event will return to the season-opening slot for the first time since 2020.
| Previous race: 2024 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix | FIA Formula One World Championship 2025 season | Next race: 2025 Chinese Grand Prix |
| Previous race: 2024 Australian Grand Prix | Australian Grand Prix | Next race: 2026 Australian Grand Prix |
