Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix 2025 Recap
This year’s season opener was one of the most hectic races we’ve seen in a while and it saw multiple retirements, shifting weather and strong results for unexpected teams.
The action began even before the race had begun at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. During the formation lap, Isack Hadjar, in his Formula One debut, lost control of the car and crashed into the barriers, leading to an aborted start. This was especially disappointing after he gained a promising P11 in Qualifying and with Yuki Tsunoda managing to put the car in P5, it looked as if it was going to be competitive in this race. Hadjar was visibly distraught as he was seen crying walking back to the paddock, where he was comforted by Anthony Hamilton, Lewis’ father, who walked him back to the Racing Bulls garage.
This would delay the race by about 10 minutes, but little did we know it would only be the beginning of a messy chain of events.
After only a single lap, Jack Doohan lost his rear tyres as a result of a gear shift and this saw him losing the car on Turn 6, leading to a safety car. As the cars were grouping together, Carlos Sainz also lost the rear end of his Williams and went into the wall – this was the end of both of their races. As the safety car returns back, the race resumes and Lando Norris speeds ahead, building a big gap between him and Max Verstappen, who is falling behind and locks up his front right wheel, allowing Oscar Piastri to overtake him and it becomes a battle of the McLarens.
Their racing results in Mclaren telling Oscar to back off and “maintain position”, which causes a bit of tension as Oscar proclaims “I’m quicker but okay” – he still abides. The rest of the pack remains very consistent – George Russell stays strong in P4, Charles Leclerc in P5, Yuki Tsunoda in P6, Alex Albon in P7 and Lewis Hamilton in P8. Lewis makes constant attempts to get closer to Albon but fails to overtake him, leading to his race engineer Riccardo Adami trying to give him tips, to which Hamilton continuously and angrily replies “Leave me alone. I can do it”
On lap 34, as conditions begin to become uncertain, another safety car is summoned as Fernando Alonso gets caught in the gravel and loses control, finding himself in the wall. This has given everyone the opportunity to change tyres and almost everyone does this, swapping onto slicks now that the rain has died down. However, some teams are getting reports of a pocket of rain coming in around 10 laps and this leads Haas to choose to stay on inters.
On lap 42, Haas decided to go onto slicks and pit both of their drivers onto hard tyres – clearly a bad management call waiting this long to do that. Ollie Bearman comes out of the pits ahead of Verstappen, which causes some trouble as lapped cars are supposed to have overtaken the safety car by now. He passed before the safety car came in, but it was too close for comfort and had the potential for chaos there.
On lap 45, disaster strikes as rain comes pouring down onto the track which sends Oscar Piastri flying into the grass and getting stuck, losing him a spot on the podium at his home race. After some struggle, he manages to reverse it and get it back on track to join in P14. Following this, the majority of the grid pitted onto inters to combat the increasingly wet track. A few others, including both Ferrari cars, Red Bulls and a few others choose to stay out.
Verstappen, who had become race leader due to everyone else pitting, now follows suit and decides to pit onto the inter due to condition and it proves to be perfect timing. He comes out in P3 and towards the back of the pack, both Gabriel Bortoleto and Liam Lawson crash, meaning that another safety car is called out to guide the drivers.
On lap 50, with only 7 laps to go, the Ferraris decide to pit onto inters to join everyone else and fall down to P9 and 10. Hamilton tells the team they they lost out on a huge opportunity with this messed up strategy. The grid levels out well – Kimi Antonelli races up to P5 and overtakes Alex Albon for P4. Nico Hulkenberg is holding the Sauber in P7 whilst Lance Stroll goes undetected in P6.
Charles Leclerc overtakes Hamilton and builds a bigger gap to maintain P9. Pierre Gasly slips up, allowing the Ferraris to overtake him and he falls to P10, where he is overtaken by Oscar Piastri, who is on a mega-fast recovery run.
On the final lap, Verstappen is close to Norris but not quite close enough. Oscar Piastri makes a brave overtake on the final few corners and takes P9 away from Hamilton. Kimi Antonelli receives a 5 second penalty for an unsafe release in the pits and Albon edges closer, meaning he loses out on P4.
The first few cars come around the final corner and cross the finish line, making Lando Norris the winner of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix.
He is followed by Max Verstappen in P2, George Russell in P3, an incredible Alex Albon in P4, Kimi Antonelli in P5, Lance Stroll in P6, Nico Hulkenberg in P7, Charles Leclerc in P8, Oscar Piastri in P9 and Lewis Hamilton rounds out the top 10.
After a very exciting and all over-the-place very wet race, it’s hard to tell what any of the cars’ true pace is yet, as they were all downplaying their limits due to the race. One thing for sure, it’s going to be a very fun season and we cannot wait to see how the next race unfolds in China next weekend, on the 21st-23rd March.
Thanks for reading this article on the Formula One Australian Grand Prix 2025. For more news, stay tuned here at Feature First.
