Lando Norris says George Russell only one saying Australian GP qualifying was nice

And what made matters worse for the Briton was that he was almost one second off George Russell's pole time in a Mercedes-powered McLaren, which means that the 2025 F1 Constructors' Champions have work to do with their MCL40.

Norris suffered from reliability issues, which cut his practice mileage short, and as a result, appeared off the pace on qualifying day, not comfortable in the car, and never appeared in contention for pole.

"Not very good, not very nice," he said after qualifying in Melbourne. "I think George will be the only one saying it was nice.

"It was inconsistent. One lap better, one lap not. It's just tricky. I've been on the back foot from the start of the weekend. I've not done a lot of laps. A lot of issues on the car, which I wish we had less of. It happens.

"We are trying to work through them. In some ways it's an expectation at the start of the year to minimize them."

Norris was even unlucky to drive over the Mercedes cooling fan that dropped from Kimi Antonelli's W17, who was sent out on track with the cooling fans still in both sidepods.

Norris said: "Luck hasn't been on my side so far this weekend, including in Q3 with the debris on track and breaking my front wing, so I'm pretty happy with my position.

"With the lack of laps this weekend and just performance from the car, it's made my life tricky," the McLaren driver concluded.

Oscar Piastri qualified for his home race one position ahead of Norris, in fifth, with less than a tenth of a second separating the McLaren pair. (Source: Sky Sports F1)