Plenty was on the line with two minutes left of qualifying for the first race of the 2025 F1 season. Lando Norris, having gone beyond the limit in his first lap, was set to start 10th. There was a second chance – but there would not be a third.
Yet when it mattered most, the man tagged as the favourite for the 2025 F1 world championship pipped his Aussie teammate Oscar Piastri to pole for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, to the dismay of thousands in the grandstands.
Piastri had looked to have taken pole from defending champion Max Verstappen, who admitted afterwards he was satisfied with third place in an under-par Red Bull car. However, Norris, stretching his McLaren to the limit on this tricky 14-turn street circuit, made it count. Not by much, though, with just 0.084 seconds in it.
As for Lewis Hamilton, after all the fandom and hype, it was ultimately an underwhelming first qualifying showing for Ferrari. The 40-year-old, who dreams of a record-breaking eighth title with the sport’s most fabled marque, will start tomorrow’s race eighth on the grid. His teammate Charles Leclerc is alongside him in seventh.
For Hamilton, and perhaps more concerningly for Ferrari, it is a reality check.
Norris admitted afterwards that he was expecting more from Ferrari, who were runners-up to McLaren in last year’s closely fought constructors’ championship.
“I was expecting a fight from Ferrari,” he said. “Max has said he is surprised to be up here [top-three].
“But everyone is quick to judge, it’s difficult out there to put a lap together. I did expect Ferrari to be a bit quicker.”
Hamilton, who has gambled his final years in the sport with Ferrari, endured a tricky first qualifying session in scarlet. The 40-year-old spun in Q2, with oncoming cars doing well to avoid his SF-25 car, but was saved by his first lap to make the top-10 shootout.
But while Norris and Piastri vied with Verstappen, Ferrari faltered. In the end, even Racing Bulls and Williams finished ahead of them, with Yuki Tsunoda in fifth and Alex Albon in sixth.
Most excruciatingly of all for Hamilton, though, is his former Mercedes teammate George Russell – who dominated him on Saturdays last year, outqualifying him 19-5 over 24 races – is fourth on the grid.
Russell will start alongside arch nemesis Verstappen; popcorn at the ready please. Hamilton, however, was level-headed in the media pen afterwards.
“I generally feel good, I had a really good time out there today,” Hamilton, a two-time winner in Australia, said. “It’s been a lot of work to adapt to this car, there’s so much that’s different here to what I’ve experienced in the past.
“I didn’t know we’d be nine-tenths off [pole] today, so a lot of dissect.” Ahead of what is expected to be a wet race on Sunday – the first in Melbourne for 15 years – Hamilton admitted he was unsure how his new car would react.
“Tomorrow will be a challenge,” he said. “I’ve never driven this car in the rain.
“I don’t even know the rain setting [on the car], so I’ve got to go and study that tonight and it will be a learning experience again tomorrow.”
McLaren have, on the whole, looked the quickest car throughout the weekend but all the frontrunners appeared tighter over one lap. And throughout qualifying it was nip-and-tuck before Norris nicked top spot.
“At this track, you have to commit,” the Bristolian said afterwards. “You want to take those risks, I took too many on the first lap. I was in a difficult position but put it together, made no mistakes and had a clean lap.
“It’s a sketchy track, you’ve got walls close and can’t make mistakes. There will be a lot of painted white lines which are slippery at our speeds [tomorrow]. It won’t be easy. It tests you.
“I’m excited, we have a good car and just have to keep our head down.”
As for Ollie Bearman, his utterly miserable weekend continued on Saturday. After his heavy crash on Friday, he missed most of the final practice session after spinning into the gravel, before he failed to set a time in qualifying due to a gearbox issue. The 19-year-old from Chelmsford will start dead last on Sunday.
Kimi Antonelli, meanwhile, who is tipped to be the next star talent of the sport, was also knocked out in Q1 and will start 16th on the grid, though was impacted by a bodywork issue on his Mercedes car. For both rookies, alongside Red Bull’s Liam Lawson who will start 18th, it will be a steep learning curve early on this year.
There will be plenty for all the teams to learn. Ferrari will have realised they have not closed the gap to leaders McLaren; in fact, it’s been extended. Yet have the papaya-clad outfit learned their lesson from last year, when they allowed their drivers to race to the detriment of the team? The proof will be in the pudding on Sunday.
