Lando Norris has drawn first blood in the 2025 F1 title fight after pipping Oscar Piastri to pole position to set up a McLaren front row at Albert Park.
Q1
The start of a brand new Formula 1 season has finally begun, but for Ollie Bearman’s his start came to an end very quickly. The gearbox in his Haas was having issues on his first outlap, and he quickly came back in to try and get it fixed in time to set a lap, which ultimately did not happen.
Bearman was not the only relative rookie to have an early exit out of qualifying. Liam Lawson, who has taken over from Sergio Perez at Red Bull, never looked entirely comfortable throughout Q1, and failed to complete a representative lap, finishing the session in 18th.
18 year old Andrea Kimi Antonelli also makes his F1 debut for the Mercedes team, and was also surprisingly knocked out in Q1. The Italian had suffered damage to the floor of his car, which appeared to severely compromise his pace, leaving him in 16th by the end of Q1, being just beaten by fellow rookie Gabriel Bortoleto.
ELIMINATED
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes +0.009
- Nico Hulkenberg – Kick Sauber +0.063
- Liam Lawson – Red Bull +0.578
- Esteban Ocon – Haas +0.631
- Ollie Bearman – Haas NO TIME
Q2.
Q1 and Q2 both demonstrated that the likely fight for pole position would be between the two McLarens and Max Verstappen, whose Saturday was looking far better than what was being predicted following testing.
Ferrari however were looking a bit further away from the top than pre season speculation was suggesting, and were particularly struggling with grip in the final sector. While both drivers were able to make it to Q3, Hamilton did have a spin on the exit of turn 11, which did compromise some laps as DRS was briefly disabled.
Rumours already began to swirl around Jack Doohan’s position in F1 throughout pre-season following the signing of Franco Colapinto as a reserve driver at Alpine, however the Australian did not look out of place on track at his home race. While he would have probably liked to have qualified higher, especially with teammate Gasly getting into Q3, 14th is a respectable start to his season.
ELIMINATED
11.Isack Hadjar – Racing Bulls +0.063
- Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.341
- Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.371
- Jack Doohan – Alpine +0.751
- Gabriel Bortoleto – Kick Sauber +1.408
Q3
Verstappen took the early advantage in Q3 after Oscar Piastri had a scruffy final sector and Lando Norris had a track limits violation after going wide at turn 4. George Russell was only a couple of hundredths behind in his Mercedes, looking to be a part of the conversation for pole position as well.
McLaren would tidy things up in the final part of qualifying, with Lando Norris managing to beat teammate and home town hero Piastri by a little under one tenth of a second, who in turn beat Verstappen by three tenths to take second in a McLaren front row lock out.
Russell was a respectable fourth, while Tsunoda put in a stunning lap to go fifth. The Racing Bulls driver was not the only midfield driver to outperform the front runners, as immediately behind him is Williams’ Alex Albon, who outqualifed the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, who start tomorrow’s grand prix in seventh and eighth respectively.
Qualifying results
- Lando Norris – McLaren 1:15.096
- Oscar Piastri – McLaren +0.084
- Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.385
- George Russell – Mercedes +0.450
- Yuki Tsunoda – Racing Bulls +0.574
- Alex Albon – Williams +0.018
- Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.659
- Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari +0.877
- Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.884
- Carlos Sainz – Williams +0.966
Featured image credit: @F1 on X
