A track of massive rain, cold and hostile weather greeted the field in Melbourne , where the question of the day was whether McLaren and Lando Norris could convert their great one-lap pace into victory.
The Australian Grand Prix field had barely begun their formation lap when Racing Bulls rookie Isaac Hadjar lost control of his car on a slow corner and crashed into the wall... After such an introduction, we could have expected real chaos at the season-opening race. And it turned out to be true.
After the start, Max Verstappen immediately gained a position, while Lando Norris maintained his lead, but we didn't see much continuity, as further back, Jack Doohan wrecked the Alpine . The safety car appeared, but no sooner had this been signaled than another car was in the wall: Carlos Sainz dropped the Williams...
Thirty minutes of relentless boredom followed, during which recovery took place, and that time was more than enough for the aforementioned conditions to change. Meanwhile, after eight laps behind the safety car, the race was finally restarted, but nothing significant happened, unless we consider the drying of the ideal line as such. Norris was getting further and further away from Verstappen , while Piastri was steadily closing in. The Australian soon caught his opponent, but the truth is that this was more due to the Dutchman's late arrival. There were many mistakes and very few position changes, and moments reminiscent of the race. The position at the top remained unchanged: Norris led, followed by Piastri , while Verstappen advanced behind them with a huge delay. The rest of the field couldn't even be seen in a frame, which says a lot about power relations. We had almost given up on the race when Fernando Alonso decided to crash the Aston Martin into the wall, and with that, he rallied the guys. Many switched to hard tires, others to mediums, and with that, the strategy that had been carefully constructed up until then was fundamentally disrupted.
After a long loop and some debris clearance, the restart took place, with the two McLarens easily holding the top two positions ahead of Verstappen , but... But then rain came, and with it, madness: Piastri went off and got stuck, Norris scrambled for intermediate tyres, and Verstappen took the lead . But the Dutchman didn't have control of the situation for long either, the pit lane was the result. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton was on top (!!), Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto also crashed.
Finally, Lando Norris also handled the restart perfectly, dominating the race and easily winning the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen and George Russell. We mustn't forget Alexander Albon and Williams' incredible fourth-place finishes, Andrea Kimi Antonelli's fifth-place finish, and the fact that a boring race ultimately turned into a great competition and a real fight in the final laps!
Photo: AP
