Friday, 25 April 2025
Friday, 25 April 2025
The F1 season is underway and what should have been a simple 1-2 finish for McLaren turned into a Lando Norris win with Oscar Piastri finishing ninth after he spun onto the grass in the latter portions of the 57-lap Australian Grand Prix…
But… there’s more meat to the story.
The race at Melbourne’s Albert Park was defined by crashes and safety cars after the initial threat of a delayed start due to an incoming thunderstorm.
During the first formation lap, rookie Isack Hadjar crashed his RB into the wall causing the race start to be further delayed.When the race did get underway, it was Jack Doohan in the Alpine who spun out causing the first safety car to be released on the track.
In the first lap behind the safety car, the 2024 Australian GP race winner Carlos Sainz spun into the wall in his new Williams.
It wasn’t just the rookies who had a bad day on track as two-time Driver’s Champion Fernando Alonso shunted his Aston Martin into the wall in the 34th lap, bringing out another safety car.
Oscar Piastri spun out from second place in the 43rd lap with the podium in sight.
Liam Lawson who was making his Redbull Racing debut spun out as well with Gabriel Bortoleto the rookie in the Sauber being the last of the drivers to crash out of the race.
Max Verstappen kept all four wheels on track to finish second with George Russell finishing off the podium places in third.
It was Alex Albon who finished fifth with Mercedes rookie, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli finishing fourth.
Ferrari finished eighth and 10th as Charles Leclerc took four points from the race while his new teammate Lewis Hamilton had to settle for just one. Lance Stroll finished sixth for Aston Martin while Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh for the Sauber team.
Pierre Gasly in the Alpine took 11th, Yuki Tsunoda finished 12th in the RB while Haas drivers Esteban Ocon and Oliver Bearman were the last two drivers who made it to the chequred flag closing of 13th and 14th, respectively.
All six drivers who crashed out are completely fine with damages only to the cars as the teams head to China for the second Round of F1 2025 next weekend.
