Lando Norris claims victory in dramatic opening F1 race of the season as Lewis Hamilton disappoints in Ferrari debut

(CNN) — Lando Norris claimed a dramatic victory in the opening race of this year’s Formula One season in Australia on Sunday.

The British driver was able to fend off the challenging conditions and the threat of four-time reigning champion Max Verstappen to top the podium and kickstart his season with the maximum 25 points.

Norris started the race in pole after McLaren dominated Saturday’s qualifying – his teammate Oscar Piastri rounded off the front-row to start in second.

But even after McLaren’s imperious qualifying form, Norris was wary of the threat of Verstappen from third on the grid – and he was right to be.

In a race heavily impacted by safety cars and – in the latter stages – rain, Verstappen never allowed Norris the comfort of a big lead and chased him down to the bitter end.

When the chequered flag was eventually waved, Verstappen was just 0.895 seconds behind Norris, who admitted he had to check his mirrors a few more times than he’d have liked.

“It was amazing,” the 25-year-old told the broadcast after his win. “A tough race, especially with Max behind me, I was pushing. It was, especially the last two laps, a little bit stressful, I’m not gonna lie, but amazing way to start the year.”

Norris admitted that it wasn’t a perfect race, but he did enough in the conditions to earn the win alongside his team.

“We got it wrong a lot last year, so I guess we learned from our mistakes,” he added.

Mercedes’ George Russell completed the podium in third with his teenage rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli racing impressively to finish fourth. Antonelli was originally given a time penalty which was later overturned.

Further down the race, it was an underwhelming day for Lewis Hamilton as he made a disappointing debut for Ferrari, finishing in tenth.

The 40-year-old joined Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season after spending a successful 12 years with Mercedes.

However, he will be hoping for vast improvements if he is to add to his seven drivers’ world championships, and Ferrari’s first since 2007.

“It went a lot worse than I thought that it would go,” an honest Hamilton told Sky Sports after what he described as a “very tricky” first race of the season.

“The car was really, really hard to drive today. For me, I’m just grateful that I kept it out of the wall because that’s really where it wanted to go most of the time.”

Hamilton and Ferrari will be hoping for quick change ahead of next week’s race.

The F1 season heads to China for its second weekend of racing following a short turnaround. The race takes place at 2 p.m. ET on March 23.

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