The 2025 F1 Season is underway with a race that had action-a-plenty, spills N thrills, and was a wet-dry-wet classic. Talking of wet and dry, our 2025 Australian F1 Grand Prix Result Summary is here and will be one where you need a change of clothes by the end.
This 2025 Australian Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
2025 Australian F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – So testing rumours were correct and McLarens are the fastest cars and prove it with a 1-2 in qualifying with Lando Norris beating the home town hero Oscar Piastri. Max Verstappen proved the Red Bull isn’t too bad with third, although this year’s Perez proved Perez-like and bombed out in Q1. Some rapid surprised with Tsunoda fifth and Albon sixth. Ferraris disappointed in 7th and 8th. But all that was when it was hot, and dry.
It is neither on race day. It was so wet that they tried to start F2 three times before calling it off without a compeditive lap. All cars start on Inters as the rain stops but track is wet.
So we have the first race of the season, on a track that is known for incidents, with six rookie drivers, multiple driver/team changes and it’s wet. This could be top shelf chaos entertainment.
CRASH!!!!! Make that five rookies…….New boy Isack Hadjar has gone off in his Racing Bull at turn two on the formation lap. Did we say stuff was going to happen or what. The start is aborted, so we have to go through all the start procedure again.
In the meantime time there’s radio from Ferrari that there’s rain coming in five or so minutes. Woof. This better live up to the hype.
GRID (Starting Order) – NOR PIA VER RUS TSU ALB LEC HAM GAS SAI
Oliver Bearman and Liam Lawson start from pitlane.
Lap 1 – Lando Norris gets away slowly as you’d expect but well enough to stay in front at turn one. Oscar Piastri does ok, but Max Verstappen gets away better and threatens the McLarens at turn one and gets in front of Oscar Piastri by turn three. The rest of the field tip toe through the first half a lap. And half a lap is all we get as
CRASH!!!! Jack Doohan has dropped it on the approach to turn six and jammed it into the wall. Two rookies down, and sadly one of the locals for Australian fans.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – NOR VER PIA RUS LEC TSU ALB HAM GAS SAI
Lap 2 – CRASH!!!!! Carlos “Utah” Sainz has binned it into the final corner….behind the safety car. And his team look thoroughly impressed.
Lap 5 – The two Haas cars and Liam Lawson change to new wet tyres. Which seems a waste as they will be stuck behind the Safety Car.
SAFETY CAR EXITS – RACE RESUMES
Lap 8 – Lando Norris just holds off Max Verstappen into turn one, and the field behave themselves and maintain positions at the sharp end of the grid. Fernando Alonso in 10th has a potential penalty from Safety Car infringement. Same for Tsunoda is tsixth. Oscar Piastri is harassing Max Verstappen for second as Lando Norris pushes out a gap. We’ve now had a full racing lap for the 2025 season.
ORDER – NOR VER PIA RUS LEC TSU ALB HAM ALO
Lap 11 – The field has started to spread a little. The top three are a second apart, then it is 2.5 seconds further back to fourth placed George Russell. The other biggish gap (2.5 sec) is Tsunoda is tsxith behind Charles Leclerc. DRS is enabled to create another layer of interest.
Lap 13 – There’s a dry line appearing and the cars are starting to jink to the wet patches to keep the tyres from overheating. Just as we type this, there’s a threat of rain in six minutes. What to do? McLaren have to consider having two good drivers close to each other too. Early Papaya rules pending. No one has dared to pit recently.
ORDER – NOR VER PIA RUS LEC TSU ALB HAM GAS ALO
Lap 15 – Mercedes raw rookie Kimi Antonelli is making decent progress and is up to 12th after overtaking Nico Hulkenberg’s Kick Sauber. He’s the leading rookie with Bortoleto 14th, Lawson second last and Bearman last. But at least they are still circulating. Talking of circulating, replays show Antonelli spinning around and around the carpark outside of turn four. He rejoins behind Hulkenberg but overtakes him a lap or so later.
Lap 16 – The class 1 rain aka sprinkle of rain is apparently falling. The race needs it a little as it has gone a bit quiet.
Lap 17 – Max Verstappen runs wide at the end of the back straight and Oscar Piastri snatches second. Time for some proper papaya rules. Max Verstappen says his tyres are dead. Lewis Hamilton also joins the Safety Car infringement gang of Alonso and Albon. Alonso is cleared by lap 20. Same for Albon. And Hamilton and Tsunoda. Nothing happening then.
ORDER – NOR PIA VER RUS LEC TSU ALB HAM GAS ALO
Lap 20 – Liam Lawson overtakes a Haas but nearly goes off. It’s kind of a Perez drive.
Lap 25 – Not much happening except Oscar Piastri slowly closing in on Lando Norris. There was an amusing radio chat between Charles Leclerc and his team about his cockpit filling up with water. Leclerc remain safe (but not dry) for now in fifth place.
Lap 28 – The McLarens are separated by under one second, meanwhile Piastri has opened up a gap of 15 seconds to Max Verstappen. More rain or strategy stuff ups aside, it’s a McLaren show now. Piastri will have DRS now. He takes Fastest Lap now. Delicious.
Lap 30 – Oscar Piastri is using DRS and is right on the tail of Lando Norris. But here comes the team radio telling their drivers to hold position until dry conditions. Piastri is listening for now, but seems quicker, and may well be later. The fun and games starting nice and early for McLaren. Teams will have to change tyres soon. So much to consider.
ORDER – NOR PIAS VER RUS LEC TSU ALB HAM GAS ALO
Lap 32 – Oscar Piastri has a big sideways movement exiting turn eight or nine and loses a few seconds to Norris.
Lap 33 – McLaren drivers are told they are free to race. Outstanding. Meanwhile Piastri laps Liam Lawson-Perez.
Lap 34 – CRASH!!!! Fernando Alonso crashes into the wall at turn seven, and this will be a Safety Car. Will it be slicks? Or more wets? So interesting. A race to be won or lost.
Everyone dives into the pits, taking full advantage of the Safety Car. It’s slick tyres for all but a mix of Mediums and Hards. Hard tyres for McLaren, George Russell, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Medium for Red Bull, Albon. The Haas cars are on Inters and hoping for rain. They may get it.
Again teams are saying rain is coming. That will be interesting if it happens with the field on slicks.
ORDER – NOR PIA VER RUS LEC TSU ALB HAM GAS ANT
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Lapped cars finally get out of the way. Including Liam Lawson. Aka Sergio Lawson.
SAFETY CAR EXITS – RACE RESUMES
Lap 41 – Lando Norris does a good job of the restart and has a nice gap to Piastri in second. Max Verstappen on mediums is closing in on the second placed McLaren. Tsunoda and Albon are others to watch early on the mediums.
Lap 43 – Now it’s raining just a little. Even a little will cause chaos for drivers on slicks on a cold-ish track. Especially for McLaren who have drivers first and second. How much rain? Tsunoda is past Leclerc for fifth after the Ferrari loses it.
ORDER – NOR PIA VER RUS TSU LEC ALB HAM GAS ANT
Lap 44 – Both McLarens are off at Turn 13, both make it through the gravel and keep their place, but Oscar Piastri slides off again onto the grass near the pitlane entry and is spinning his wheels, his race looks over. Meanwhile Max Verstappen overtakes Lando Norris as the McLaren quickly pits for wet tyres and in the process and takes the lead. Also pitting is George Russell, Albon, Antonelli, Stroll, Hulkenberg and more. Chaos at the final corners caused by the small shower of rain.
Piastri has put it into reverse on the grass and rejoins the Grand Prix backwards as per Martin Brundle’s advice. Amazing work. And to huge applause.
ORDER – VER TSU HAM GAS LEC LAW NOR RUS ALB STR
Lap 45 – Lando Norris comes out behind Liam Lawson while the other Red Bull leads.
Lap 46 – Max Verstappen stays out on the medium slicks, but is crawling around the final corners….his team say stay out. Nope, he’s into the pits as the rain gets harder. Pierre Gasly pits from third, the two Ferraris stay out leaving Lewis Hamilton in the lead.
Lap 47 – Max Verstappen rejoins in front of George Russell in 5th who is on wets. Lando Norris retakes the lead after passing the two Ferraris within about 500 metres.
CRASH!!!! Gabriele Bortoleto and Liam Lawson are into the barriers. Bortoleto lost it at McLaren corner at pace. Liam Lawson’s crash mirrored junior Racing Bulls driver Isack Hadjar.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Ferraris pit for wet tyres and have to double stack. They will go to the back of the field.
ORDER – NOR VER RUS ALB ANT STR HUL GAS HAM LEC TSU OCO PIA BEA
SAFETY CAR EXITS – RACE RESUMES
Lap 52 – Lando Norris should be getting used to these restarts by now and does a good job once again. No change in the top ten aside from some Ferrari driver swapping.
Lap 54 – Lando Norris looks comfortable out in front. Pierre Gasly doesn’t as he fishtails out of turn one in front of both Ferraris and loses places to both. Further ahead Kimi Antonelli showing plenty of promise as he harasses Alex Albon for fourth.
Lap 55 – Piastri passes Pierre Gasly for the final point of the afternoon. It’s less than he and most of the crowd wanted, but it may help at the end of the season.
Lap 56 – Max Verstappen is so close to the McLaren of Lando Norris he can smell the radiator fluid. But the wet conditions are making it tough to get by. Max doesn’t. Kimi Antonelli is under investigation for a penalty. Hopefully it doesn’t ruin a good result for the highest placed rookie. He does, five seconds and drops from fourth to fifth.
FINAL LAP – Max Verstappen gets close, but it never really looked in doubt, and Lando Norris kicks off his 2025 campaign as well as he ended 2024, and takes the early lead in the Championship, whilst operating the best car on the grid. Max Verstappen gets maximum out of his Red Bull, and George Russell scores one of the most invisible podiums in recent memory.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – NOR VER RUS ALB ANT STR HUL LEC PIA HAM
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – LANDO NORRIS
Starts the season off with a win from pole position, watches his team mate slide off the track in his rear view mirrors, and sets an early benchmark for the team in case team orders are applied down the track in a car that’s clearly the fastest. Yeah, pretty good weekend.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
MAX VERSTAPPEN – May not have the fastest car this season but is getting plenty out of the car he has. Wet weather helped, but he also did the job in dry qualifying. Perhaps another season of Championship winning and teammate destroying is ahead again. Although, may not be close enough to the McLarens in the dry.
GEORGE RUSSELL – Not a bad end result when third place is anonymous.
ALEX ALBON – Sensational from the Williams driver. Sixth on the grid, fourth in the race. Hopefully genuine upper midfield pace from Williams.
KIMI ANTONELLI – Not a great qualifying but headed the rookies home in a difficult race. More to come.
LANCE STROLL – Somehow stayed on the track for points. When better drivers lost it.
YUKI TSUNODA – A very good weekend if not a great end result. Especially given how Lawson went.
NICO HULKENBERG – Seventh place in a car that scored points once last season. Has now finished in seventh place six times of his last eight Australian Grands Prix.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Just hangs on for honourable mention. Qualified second, so a front row start at his home Grand Prix was a fine achievement. Despite losing out to Max Verstappen on lap one, he passed the Red Bull by lap 20 and closed in on Lando Norris. Looked good in the race, and at Lando’s pace. Let’s just forget the sliding off the track and reversing to the tail of the field. A couple of points is still a couple of points. Should have been more.
GABRIELE BORTOLETO – May have ended up with a trashed Kick Sauber, but impressed greatly on his debut by escaping Q1 and looking solid enough during the race.
THE GRAPE-EST – LIAM LAWSON
Replaced Sergio Perez. Had a Sergio Perez kind of weekend. Way off the pace of Verstappen for most of the weekend. Disaster qualifying, knocked out in Q1. Started from pit lane and made ok progress. Almost redeemed himself after the McLaren hijinks, then binned it into a wall.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
ISACK HADJAR – Crashing at the second corner on the formation lap of your first grand prix is possibly the worst start to an F1 career you can make.
JACK DOOHAN – Under pressure for his drive before the season has started, the one thing Jack Doohan probably didn’t want to do was bin his car early. Whilst saved the embarrassment of a formation lap exit of Hadjar, Doohan only made it five and a half corners into the Australian Grand Prix before crashing.
CARLOS SAINZ – Crashed at the final corner behind the safety car. He complained about a mechanical fault, and it could well be, but still not a great look.
LEWIS HAMILTON – Underwhelming debut. Qualified behind his team mate. Stuck behind Alex Albon enough in the race to ruin it. Complained on radio about car issues. Passed late to earn just the one point. Not the best start to his new Ferrari career.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Proving the rookies weren’t the only ones who could lose it into a wall, F1’s most experienced driver crash at two thirds distance.
FERRARI – 8th and 10th is not a great start to the season. And they are meant to be McLaren’s closest compeditors. Of course strategy at the heart of what went didn’t go so well.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
ON TRACK ACTION – 9 / 10
Plenty of crashes early, so early the race hadn’t begun. But the race did die down reasonably quickly. But then Oscar Piastri passed Max Verstappen and McLaren team order were going to become an issue, Then an Alonso crash brought out the Safety Car forcing all the drivers onto slicks. Then a spot of rain came and turned the race on its head, only for that to be re-turned by the end of the race.
ANY SURPRISES? – 4 / 5
The weather being unpredictable was surprise enough. A car losing it two corners into the Formation Lap was unexpected. Carlos Sainz and Fernando Alonso going off under the Safety Car as we all chuckled about rookies binning it. The McLarens being fast isn’t a surprise though. But when they suddenly ran wide and Piastri got beached it was a surprise.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 5 / 5
Doesn’t get more important for the season than the opening race where sandbags can be shed and secrets lack of pace has nowhere to hide.
ENDING – 9 / 10
Well a little spot of rain made a big difference. It saw the front running McLarens slide off, other cars hit the wall, numerous pit stops for varying strategies on tyres.
OVERALL RATING – 27 / 30
A race that promised plenty and nearly had it all. What a way to start the 2025 season. And despite the moaning from Europe about the time zone, why wouldn’t you want the Grand Prix season to start in Australia rather than Bahrain.
2024 F1 Season Review Gear
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
2024 F1 SEASON FULL RACE REPORT HISTORY
