Lando Norris mastered treacherous, changing conditions in a dramatic, incident-packed race to beat Max Verstappen and win the Australian Grand Prix.
The drama began even before the race officially started, when rookie Isack Hadjar spun his Racing Bull car at Turn Two on the formation lap. The Frenchman stood with his head in his hands, apparently crying, before returning to the pits.
After a 15-minute delay, the race finally got under way, only for another rookie, Australian Jack Doohan, to crash his Alpine on the straight between Turns Four and Six and bring out the safety car.
Underlining the difficulty of the conditions, Carlos Sainz immediately crashed his Williams at the final corner as well.
Norris and his McLaren team made the right calls in a race punctuated by crashes, three safety cars and an aborted start as the Briton put together a statement drive at the start of a season he intends to end as world champion.
Norris was forced to fend off a late threat from Verstappen, brought back into contention by a late safety car, but held on to take his fifth career victory.
George Russell finished third for Mercedes in Melbourne while Williams’ Alex Albon finished fourth, ahead of Mercedes’ 18-year-old Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was fourth on the road but demoted a place for an unsafe release penalty.
Lewis Hamilton, making his debut for Ferrari, finished 10th on a difficult day for the team, with George Russell third for Mercedes in Melbourne.
Lance Stroll made up on a Alonso error to take sixth for Aston Martin, ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton.
Liam Lawson then crashed his Red Bull, a disappointing end to a difficult first race for the senior team, and Gabriel Bortoleto blotted an otherwise strong start to his career for Sauber, and the safety car was deployed again.
