A massive rain-soaked track, cold and hostile weather greeted the field in Melbourne , where the question of the day was whether McLaren and Lando Norris could translate their brilliant one-lap pace into victory.
As the Australian Grand Prix field was just getting underway for its warm-up lap, Isaac Hadja , a rookie for the Racing Bulls team , lost his car in a slow corner and crashed into the wall... After such an opening, we could have expected real chaos for the opening race of the season. And so it came.
After the start, Max Verstappen immediately improved by one position, while Lando Norris maintained the lead, but we didn't see much continuity, as Jack Doohan seriously wrecked the Alpine at the back . The safety car came out, but as soon as it was announced, we saw another car lying in the wall: Carlos Sainz threw the Williams...
A brutally boring 30 minutes followed, during which the removals took place, and this time was long enough for the aforementioned circumstances to change. In the meantime, after eight laps behind the safety car, the race finally started again, but nothing significant happened, if we do not take into account the drying of the ideal track as such. Norris increasingly moved away from Verstappen , to whom Piastre was constantly approaching . The Australian soon caught up with his rival, but the truth is that this was more due to the Dutch elf 's failure. There were many mistakes and very few changes of position and moments that resembled racing. At the front, the situation remained unchanged, Norris led, Piastre behind him , Verstappen crawling behind them with an abysmal gap. The rest of the field did not even fit into the frame, which says a lot about the balance of power. We almost gave up the race when Fernando Alonso did something unexpected, crashed into the Aston Martin and thus pulled the boys back. Many switched to hard , some to medium, which fundamentally changed the previously carefully built strategy.
After a long circling and cleaning up after accidents, another start came, where both McLarens easily held the first two places ahead of Verstappen , but... But the rain came and with it madness: Piastri went off the track and got stuck, Norris ran for intermediate tires, Verstappen meanwhile took the lead . But the Dutchman did not control the situation for long either, the pit lane was over. Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton got to the lead (!!), Liam Lawson and Gabriel Bortoleto ended up in the wall.
Finally, Lando Norris managed another restart , who actually dominated the entire race and easily won the Australian Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen and George Russell. We can't forget the amazing fourth place of Alexander Albon and Williams, fifth place of Andrea Kimi Antonelli, and also that a boring race turned into a great race, with a real fight in the last laps!
Photo: AP
