Lando Norris took the first pole position of the 2025 Formula One season and will be joined on the front row by McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri for the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Cheers roared around the circuit as home favorite Piastri made his way around for his final Q3 run. The Australian managed to better Verstappen’s initial Q3 time but was beaten by Norris, who was 0.084 seconds quicker. Verstappen, who set the early pace, finished third in Melbourne.
Despite the offseason hype, the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were outside of the top five, qualifying seventh and eighth respectively to take the fourth row. Hamilton, on his Ferrari debut, was 0.218 seconds behind his teammate.
Speaking to F1TV, Hamilton said he didn’t expect to be so far off the pace.
“I really am still learning this car, I’ve been chipping away at it all weekend, fine-tuning it, finding new tools that we didn’t get to test in testing that I’ve never used before,” he said. “I feel good that I got pretty much everything from the car I think at the end. I think there’s probably a couple tenths left in it.”
Only three teams had both of their drivers in Q3 — McLaren, Ferrari and Williams. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson were both knocked out in Q1. Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls had the strongest outing of the rookies, qualifying P11.
Hadjar’s teammate Yuki Tsunoda broke into the top five after an impressive session and will line up next to Williams’ Alex Albon, who qualified sixth. Securing third-row starts is a major statement not just for Racing Bulls and Williams but also for the drivers themselves. Tsunoda was passed over for the Red Bull seat, the team opting to replace Sergio Perez with Lawson, while plenty of fanfare has surrounded Carlos Sainz’s arrival at Williams.
Sunday is a big opportunity for the midfield. A chance of rain is in the forecast, and with a Mercedes and a Red Bull out of the top 10, the likes of Williams, Racing Bulls and Alpine could make early gains in the constructors’ standings.
Lewis Hamilton during qualifying ahead of Sunday’s Grand Prix (Clive Mason/Getty Images)
The weather also adds to the unknowns surrounding the race as there hasn’t been a significant amount of wet running in recent years and this is the season opener.
Speaking to reporters after qualifying, Norris said: “It’s a new car, so there’s also a lot of unknowns and question marks that we have for will the car perform? Will it perform at the same level? Is there different issues? It’s not always as simple as just saying, bolt some wets on and have a crack so we’ll wait and see… Definitely a bit of our pace potentially goes out of the window, just because it’s a bit harder to kind of extract and show the difference of pace that we’ve had today (Saturday). But we’re in the best position to do that, if we can.”
Hamilton told reporters he saw a potential wet race as an “opportunity.”
“Growing up in England it was always wet, so I’ve always enjoyed it and it’s been a comfort zone for me,” he said. “I’m going actually for the first time in the wet in an uncomfortable position in this car. I think it’s going to be a shock to the system when I get out there, but I’m going to be learning on the fly, and just giving it everything.”
How everyone qualified
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- George Russell, Mercedes
- Yuki Tsunoda, Racing Bulls
- Alex Albon, Williams
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
- Pierre Gasly, Alpine
- Carlos Sainz, Williams
- Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls
- Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
- Jack Doohan, Alpine
- Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
- Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
- Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber
- Liam Lawson, Red Bull
- Esteban Ocon, Haas
- Ollie Bearman, Haas
Q1: Antonelli, Hülkenberg, Lawson, Ocon and Bearman knocked out
Oliver Bearman crashes during the first practice session of the Australian Grand Prix on March 14, 2025. (Paul Crock/AFP via Getty Images)
Ollie Bearman’s weekend went from bad to worse. After crashing in FP3 (his second of the weekend), the Haas driver reported a gearbox issue early in qualifying and did not set a lap time, landing him P20. How this weekend has unfolded so far starkly contrasts to his F1 races last season, where he scored points in two of three weekends and starred on his F1 debut at the Saudi Arabia GP by finishing seventh. With Esteban Ocon P19, Haas is on the backfoot after having a strong, consistent 2024 season.
Bearman wasn’t the only one who had a rough Q1. Lawson, P17 at the time, took a trip through the gravel at Turn 3, while teammate Verstappen was P2 behind Norris. He later nearly lost the car at Turn 10 and ran wide at the final chicane, going off through the grass. He qualified P18 for his debut race with Red Bull.
The other rookie out in Q1 was Antonelli, after Gabriel Bortoleto knocked the Mercedes driver out of qualifying in his final run. Mercedes said after Q1 ended that Antonelli had bib damage, which impacted his performance in those final laps.
As for Bortoleto, he enjoyed a standout first qualifying. The Brazilian not only managed to get the Sauber into Q2, but he also out-qualified teammate Nico Hülkenberg.
Q2: Hadjar, Alonso, Stroll, Doohan and Bortoleto out
Ferrari’s pace raised a few eyebrows. It wasn’t quite what everyone expected as Leclerc and Hamilton ran fifth and sixth after their first runs, with Mercedes’ Russell moving into the top four. Hamilton triggered a yellow flag at one point after he spun.
Hadjar will be the top rookie going into Sunday’s grand prix, after the Racing Bulls’ driver qualified P11. He was less than two-tenths of a second off teammate Tsunoda, who advanced to Q3, along with the Williams duo of Albon and Sainz and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly.
Bortoleto almost lost the car but managed to save it, qualifying P15.
The other big note from Q2 was that Aston Martin reported that Fernando Alonso had suffered floor damage from his first Q2 run. That cost him performance, but he still out-qualified teammate Lance Stroll.
(Top photo: Clive Rose/Getty Images)
