Norris Aus GP Pole – Lando Norris lead home-favourite and team-mate Oscar Piastri in a front-row lock-out for McLaren in Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park with reigning world champion Max Verstappen in third for Red Bull.
In the other Red Bull RB21 entry, Liam Lawson was eliminated in the first qualifying stage, along with Mercedes debutant Andrea Kimi Antonelli, whilst Williams’ Alexander Albon and Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda produced impressive flyers in Q3.
The McLaren pairing had to work hard for it in the final hot-laps in Q3, as both made mistakes on their initial flying laps, after which Verstappen lead the field.
Piastri, who slipped too deep at the penultimate turn on his initial tour in the final qualifying stage – pushed to the top of the time-sheets on the final flyers – the home-favourite hitting a 1:15.180 to take provisional pole with a huge gain on the rest in sector three.
But behind was his team-mate Norris – having lost his initial effort due to exceeding track limits at turn four – and the Briton went even faster in sector three after leading the opening sector, with the pole locked in on a blistering 1:15.096 and a narrow 0.084 second gap to Piastri.
The rest could not match the McLaren duo as Verstappen’s final hot-lap improvement left the Red Bull driver 0.385 seconds adrift at the end.
Mercedes’ George Russell slotted in fourth, whilst Racing Bulls’ Yuki Tsunoda had his last effort missed on the worldwide feed as it came after the others – including Williams’ Alexander Albon in-front on circuit – and finished. The Japanese driver relegated Albon to sixth, along with the Ferrari pairing lead by Charles Leclerc in seventh place.
BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly and Williams’ Carlos Sainz were behind the other Ferrari SF-25 entry of Sir Lewis Hamilton in ninth and tenth respectively as all three completed the top ten.
In Q2, Isack Hadjar’s late personal best effort was not enough for the Racing Bulls’ driver to progress, and it was the same for the Aston Martin pairing behind – Fernando Alonso leading Lance Stroll – with the Silverstone squad later stating that the former damaged his floor in an early Q2 excursion in the gravel trap behind turn ten.
BWT Alpine’s Jack Doohan moved up to 14th on his final tour and was posted just after Hamilton suffered an awkward spin at turn 11 as Ferrari kept it’s drivers running ageing softs, whilst Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto was the slowest of the Q2 runners but left a solid impression on the Formula 1 world in Q1 along with surviving a wild moment exiting turn four on his last hot-lap.
In Q1, Bortoleto’s last flying effort knocked out Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who produced a personal best effort on his last flyer after his previous flying lap had featured his F1 W16 entry scraping dramatically on the ground. The Brackley based-outfit later confirming damage to the Italian’s car’s floor-leading bib.
Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg and his replacement at the MoneyGram Haas F1 Team in Esteban Ocon were 17th and 19th respectively as Red Bull’s Liam Lawson also was a shock eliminatee alongside Antonelli.
After missing final practice with an engine problem, Lawson emerged immediately, but multiple scary moments on his final flyer meant the Kiwi abandoned it and returned to the pits.
Lawson only qualified ahead of Haas duo Ocon and Oliver Bearman, with the latter reporting a gearbox issue on his Q1 sighting tour, which followed his FP1 shunt, his missed FP2 and final practice gravel beaching.
You can see the full Formula 1 Louis Vuitton Australian Grand Prix 2025 Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1254/australia/qualifying
2025 Australian GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2025 Australian GP Pole: Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL39 – 1:15.096:
“I mean, it is the perfect way to start the year. A big congrats to the team, everyone has done an amazing job to start with a 1-2. But it is just quali right, let’s see tomorrow. The car is extremely quick and when you put it together it is unbelievable, but it is hard to put it together. I’m never going to get ahead of myself, I’m confident the car is in a good place, but we have never run it in the wet…”
2nd Place: Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL39 – 1:15.180:
“Pretty happy, great to start the year on the front row. Pretty happy with how qualifying went but just not quite enough in Q3, but it is a long season so a good start. Maybe left a little bit on the table, but I’m just happy to be on the front row and have a good start.”
3rd Place: Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB21:
“It was good, yesterday was quite tough so for us to be P3 today, I’d take that. Quali laps are exciting, good grip around here and some fast corners. Dry or wet, in the wet crazy things can happen and around here it could be quite slippery, but it is the same for everyone, so we’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
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