A massive wet track, cold and unfriendly weather greeted the field in Melbourne , where the question of the day was whether McLaren and Lando Norris could convert their excellent pace into a chance of victory.
The Australian Grand Prix field had barely started the opening lap when Racing Bulls rookie Isaac Hadjar lost control of his car on a slow corner and crashed into the wall... After that opening lap, we expected real chaos at the season opener. And that's exactly what happened.
After the start, Max Verstappen immediately moved up one place, while Lando Norris maintained his lead, but we didn't see much continuity, as further back, Jack Doohan severely destroyed the Alpine. The safety car arrived, but no sooner was it signaled than we saw another car crash into the wall: Carlos Sainz crashed the Williams...
What followed were 30 mercilessly boring minutes of recovery work, and this time was more than enough to change the aforementioned conditions. After eight laps behind the safety car, the race finally restarted, but nothing of note happened unless we count the dryness of the racing line. Norris continued to pull away from Verstappen , who was constantly being hounded by Piastri . The Australian soon caught his opponent, but to be honest, this was more due to the Dutchman's unfortunate performance. There were many mistakes and very few position changes and moments reminiscent of racing. At the front, the position remained unchanged, Norris led, followed by Piastri , while Verstappen trailed with a massive gap. The rest of the field barely fit into a cut, which says a lot about the balance of power. We had almost given up hope of the race when Fernando Alonso had an idea, hit the wall, and called the guys together. Many switched to hard tires, some to medium, and this fundamentally threw the strategy that had been well-developed up to that point into disarray.
After a long circling and clearing up, the restart came, with the two McLarens easily holding the first two places ahead of Verstappen , but... But the rain came, and with it the madness: Piastri slid and got stuck, Norris fled to intermediate tires, and Verstappen took the lead . But the Dutchman couldn't keep the situation under control for long, and the pit lane was the end of it. Meanwhile , Lewis Hamilton was in the lead (!!), with Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto also ending up in the wall.
Ultimately, Lando Norris mastered the new restart perfectly, dominating the entire race and winning the Australian Grand Prix comfortably ahead of Max Verstappen and George Russell. Not to mention the incredible fourth place finish by Alexander Albon and Williams and the fifth place by Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and the fact that a deadly boring race ultimately turned into a great race, resulting in a real battle in the final laps!
Photo: AP
