Lando Norris mastered treacherous, altering situations in a dramatic, incident-packed race to beat Max Verstappen and win the Australian Grand Prix.
Norris and his McLaren crew made the fitting calls in a race punctuated by crashes, three security automobiles and an aborted begin because the Briton put collectively an announcement drive at the beginning of a season he intends to finish as world champion.
Norris was compelled to fend off a late menace from Verstappen, introduced again into rivalry by a late security automotive, however held on to take his fifth profession victory.
Lewis Hamilton, making his debut for Ferrari, completed tenth on a troublesome day for the crew, with George Russell third for Mercedes in Melbourne.
Seven-time champion Hamilton was main on lap 46 however solely as a result of Ferrari had made the mistaken resolution to remain out on dry-weather slick tyres as a heavy bathe hit the monitor.
He and team-mate Charles Leclerc then needed to pit as a security automotive was despatched out for the ultimate time following a sequence of crashes and dropped to the underside of the highest 10.
So as to add insult to harm, Hamilton was overtaken by Leclerc on the ultimate restart, the Ferraris touching wheels flippantly within the incident, after which misplaced an extra place as McLaren’s Oscar Piastri sought to recuperate from a spin that had price him second place within the late rain.
Williams’ Alex Albon completed fourth, forward of Mercedes’ 18-year-old Italian rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who was fourth on the street however demoted a spot for an unsafe launch penalty.
McLaren acknowledged a priority that Verstappen could be a significant menace, so good is he so typically in moist situations, however Norris and Piastri managed the race from the beginning and have been in a position to go away the four-time champion behind them for a lot of the race as chaos unfolded behind them.
The drama started even earlier than the race formally began, when rookie Isack Hadjar spun his Racing Bull automotive at Flip Two on the formation lap. The Frenchman stood together with his head in his palms, apparently crying, earlier than returning to the pits.
After a 15-minute delay, the race lastly acquired underneath manner, just for one other rookie, Australian Jack Doohan, to crash his Alpine on the straight between Turns 4 and Six and produce out the protection automotive.
Underlining the issue of the situations, Carlos Sainz instantly crashed his Williams on the remaining nook as nicely.
When the race lastly acquired correctly underneath manner, Norris led however Verstappen handed Piastri to run second, solely to lose the place when he ran huge at Flip 11 on lap 17, gifting McLaren a one-two.
The McLarens first stablished their place after which, as they sorted their intermediate tyres extra successfully than the Purple Bull, constructed a lead working nostril to tail. They pulled 16 seconds on Verstappen by the point the protection automotive got here out for a second time following a crash by Fernando Alonso within the Aston Martin at Flip Six on lap 33, simply after half distance.
The leaders pitted for slick tyres however there was recent jeopardy as they waited for the restart – a rain bathe was coming in, and the groups may see that it might convey heavy rain for a brief interval, however lengthy sufficient to require a tyre change.
Norris was eager to pre-empt the situations and cease for treaded intermediate tyres early, however was warned that they needed to be on the fitting tyres on the proper time.
When the rain got here on lap 44, with 13 to go, it introduced pandemonium.
Each McLaren drivers spun on the penultimate nook. Norris was in a position to rejoin and dive into the pits for intermediate tyres, however Piastri was caught on the grass. There was a level of black comedy as he sat on the grass, his tyres spinning furiously, earlier than lastly managing to reverse again on to the monitor.
Verstappen stayed out and took the lead for 2 laps, however because the rain intensified, he finally needed to admit defeat and cease.
This was when Ferrari made their fateful error, leaving Hamilton and Leclerc out, to imagine first and second locations, solely to right away lose them as they scrabbled for grip for a lap and needed to pit anyway.
Liam Lawson then crashed his Purple Bull, a disappointing finish to a troublesome first race for the senior crew, and Gabriel Bortoleto blotted an in any other case robust begin to his profession for Sauber, and the protection automotive was deployed once more.
When the race restarted with 5 laps to go, Norris initially made a 3rd consecutive glorious restart and constructed a lead over Verstappen.
However when he ran just a little huge at Flip Six, he allowed Verstappen to shut inside a second and achieve the usage of the DRS overtaking assist, giving Norris a nervous remaining couple of laps.
However he held on calmly as Russell adopted Verstappen over the road to take the ultimate podium place.
Lance Stroll made up for Alonso’s error to take sixth for Aston Martin, forward of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg, Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton.
