Australian Grand Prix Qualifying: Norris leads McLaren front row lockout
F1 NewsSaturday, 15 March 2025 at 15:02
Lando Norris took pole for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix with teammate Oscar Piastri ensuring McLaren locked out the front row with Max Verstappen in third.
Norris' result confirmed what was already known: McLaren are not the underdogs, they are they team to beat and will be the hunted not the hunters this season.
Verstappen emerged as the challenger to McLaren and while he came closest, the gap to pole was almost four tenths which is a worrying gap for Red Bull meaning their car is even worse than that and it is their four-time Formula 1 champion driver who is making the difference.
The fact that Liam Lawson was down in 18th in the sister Red Bull is confirmation that the Milton Keynes squad have work to do.
This gap should also concern Mercedes and Ferrari as McLaren - despite its drivers being very close - seem to have a comfortable buffer over its rivals.
Russell salvaged fourth for Mercedes after Kimi Antonelli was knocked out in Q1 and while Mercedes said the Italian rookie had a damage floor for going over the kerbs in Turn 6, that does not justify that he was beaten into Q2 by Gabriel Bortoleto in a Sauber. The Brazilian was ultimately 15th.
Yuki Tsunoda delivered an impressive performance to set the fifth fastest time ahead of the superb Alex Albon who was sixth in the Williams. Isack Hadjar just missed out on Q3 and was 11th.
What makes Albon's performance more impressive is the fact that he beat his teammate Carlos Sainz and both Ferraris, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton managing seventh and eighth respectively after the Red cars showed some earlier promise. Hamilton was over two tenths shy of his teammate's time.
Pierre Gasly was a decent ninth for Alpine while his teammate Jack Doohan was unlucky to drop out in Q2 after a Yellow flag caused by Hamilton spinning.
Sainz rounded off the top ten in the second Williams in what could be a satisfy result for the Grove-based outfit who confirmed their improvement over 2024 with this result.
The stage is now set for an intriguing opening race of the 2025 F1 season especially of the predictions of rain turn out to be true.
What the top three said
Norris reflected on his first pole in 2025, his tenth in his F1 career, he said: "It's a perfect way to start the year. A big congrats to the team. An amazing job to continue from where we were at the end of last season.
"But it's just qualifying. Let's wait and see tomorrow. It will be a tricky race but today was a perfect way to start," he added. "The car is extremely quick and when you put it together, it's unbelievable but it's just difficult to put it together."
Norris had his first lap in Q3 deleted for exceeding track limits, he explained: "It was a little fight between me and Oscar today, a tough one, especially after my first lap when I went off and got track limits.
"I knew the second lap, you're in a tough position. You need to take a lot of risk but make sure you do a clean lap. A difficult mindset but I managed to pull it off, so I'm very happy."
As for his race predictions, the Briton added: "I'm never going to get ahead of myself. I'm not that kind of guy.
"I'm confident the car is in a great position but we have also never run in the wet. But we know how quick Max and Red Bull is in the rain. Let's see.
"Many opportunities for everyone but also a lot of new things to learn along the way," Norris concluded.
Piastri, who has a chance to be the first Australian to stand on the podium of his home race, added: "Pretty happy.
"It's obviously great to start the year on the front row. One position further back than I would have liked but it's a great start to the year and great to have the team on the front row.
"Now a reset and see what tomorrow has in store. Just not quite enough in Q3, but it's the start of a long season so pretty happy with a sold start," he added.
Piastri rued a mistake in Q3 that meant he missed out pole, he explained: "In sector three I lost a little bit of time compared to the lap before, I also locked up there and went off in the first run of Q3 so I didn't really want to do that twice, and maybe left a little bit on the table."
Verstappen, who started his title defense campaign in damage limitation mode said: "It was good. Yesterday was quite tough, so for us to be third today, I take that.
"Qualifying laps are very exciting. There's a lot of good grip around here, fast corners, and that's always fun," he added. "It never felt like we nailed that bit (the tyres) but the gap was quite big to them [McLaren] so it wouldn't have mattered in terms of position."
Asked about his chances for the race and if would prefer it to be a wet one, the Red Bull ace responded: "For me it's fine, dry or wet. In the wet, some crazy things can happen and around here it can be slippery but it's the same for everyone."
Q1: Lawson and Antonelli out, Bortoleto beat them in a Sauber
The session started in clear conditions with the track temperature at its lowest so far with 38 degrees Celsius while the air temperature was 32 degrees.
The Haas cars, Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman led the queue of cars out of the pitlane as green light for qualifying was given and all the drivers were on the Soft tyre except Mercedes' Russell and Antonelli who started on the Medium.
Bearman reported a problem in the gearbox and went on into the team's pit box. It has been an weekend to forget for the Briton following two crashes in FP1 and FP3.. "It's broken," he radioed.
The drivers starting banging in the laps and the times were dropping one lap after the other. Soon Norris put in his first lap and sends an ominous message to his rivals going fastest by over four tenths with Piastri only getting within 0.154s to the Briton.
Norris reported a "little bit of gravel" in Turn 6 and asked the team to have a look at the floor. Replay showed he brushed the gravel trap.
Then Verstappen went second fastest, 0.015s behind Norris. He complained about his drink connector which was too high up.
Lawson, the other hand, had a gravel trap excursion having messed up Turn 3. Antonelli on the other hand ran wide in Turn 6 brushing the gravel.
With five minutes remaining, those at risk were: Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg, Lawson, Ocon, Bearman - the latter did not even set a time and did not take part after his gearbox issue.
And then the final runs were on and in the end, Norris went fastest with a 1:15.912, 0.059s ahead of Russell while Verstappen was one tenth off the pace in third.
The order further down was : Leclerc - Piastri - Hamilton - Tsunoda - Albon - Fernando Alonso - Doohan - Gasly - Hadjar - Sainz - Lance Stroll - Bortoleto.
Eliminated: Antonelli in 16th ahead of Hulkenberg in 17th while Lawson was 18th and Ocon in 19th. Bearman was dead last with no time.
Q2: Hamilton spins, but makes Q3
The remaining 15 drivers set out for Q2 without any delays with Verstappen and the first to get out and put a lap time on the board.
Verstappen went fastest while Leclerc went second and Hamilton followed on track and went third fastest. Russell then took second with Albon fourth and Sainz seventh.
The Piastri took over the top spot with Norris in second the pair separated by 0.088s. The Ferrari drivers and Russell used old Soft tyres while the others were on new ones.
Alonso on the other hand rode the kerbs really hard having run wide at Turn 10 which Sainz also did, the Williams driver asking his team to check the floor.
The top ten after the first runs: Piastri - Norris - Verstappen - Russell - Leclerc - Albon - Hamilton - Gasly - Sainz.
With a little over six minutes remaining, the second run of laps began, with new Soft tyres for as Ferrari's Leclerc and Hamilton were the first of the top teams to put their second laps in.
With three minutes remaining all the other cars lined up in the pitlane for the next run and Bortoleto has a huge moment of oversteer and did great to hold the car.
Hamilton also spun around Turn 11 and brought out a brief Yellow flag.
In the end, Norris led the way into Q3 with a 1:15.415, 0.053s ahead of Piastri in second while Verstappen was third fastest, 0.150s off the pace.
Russell was fourth ahead of Leclerc and Hamilton in fifth and sixth respectively while Sainz was seventh in the Williams.
Tsunoda was eighth ahead of Albon in ninth while Gasly was tenth fastest.
First to lose out was Hadjar who was 11th fastest, losing out on a Q3 spot by 0.063s and was ahead of Alonso who was 12th in the Aston Martin.
Stroll was 13th ahead of Doohan in 14th, the latter was unlucky with the Yellow flag caused by Hamilton's spin.
Bortoleto's heroics were over as he was 15th fastest. Decent effort from the 2024 Formula 2 champion.
Russell was noted for impeding Leclerc.
Q3: Verstappen vs the McLarens
Without any delay, the top ten shootout was soon on as the drivers kicked off the final stage of the first qualifying session of the 2025 season.
Piastri went fastest but had a mistake in Turn 14 and soon Norris went ahead of his teammate while Leclerc soon takes over the top.
Norris lost his lap time for exceeding track limits at Turn 4 while Russell took the top spot with Hamilton in fourth but then Verstappen put in the fastest time and was on provisional pole.
The order: Verstappen - Russell - Leclerc - Piastri - Albon - Tsunoda - Hamilton - Gasly - Sainz - Norris.
With the clock ticking below the four-minute mark, the drivers went out on track for the final time on Saturday afternoon in Melbourne.
In the end, Verstappen could not keep his provisional pole as Piastri went fastest but was then dropped by Norris with the Dutchman's final effort only good for third.
Norris posted a 1:15.096 to take pole while Piastri was 0.084s behind him as Verstappen was almost four tenths off the pace in third.
Russell was fourth fastest in the Mercedes, 0.450s off pole while Tsunoda was fifth fastest, 0.124s behind the British driver.
Albon was a superb sixth for Williams beating the Ferraris. Leclerc was seventh with Hamilton down in eighth as the Red cars could not find the pace they earlier showed in the weekend.
Gasly was ninth fastest ahead of Sainz who was tenth in the Williams.
Australian Grand Prix Qualifying Classification
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