Lando Norris in boss size to start the season

From the sky, fromOscar piastri, Max Verstappen, the threat came from everywhere for the big favorite of the 2025 championship. It was first his Australian teammate who increased the pressure while the two McLaren were rolling together, then came the sudden heavy rains and the resulting strategic dilemma and, finally, out of nowhere appeared a Max Verstappen rescued from the waters. For six laps, the future winner would resist the most deadly of DRS, that of the Red Bull of the four-time world champion. Resist, there was no other possible outcome for him. Resist, to show who is the leader of the peloton, to remove the last doubts, to launch the dynamic without which a world campaign is doomed to failure.

The Briton could have lost everything in the Antipodes and he won it all, nipping in the bud the ambitious Piastri's desire for emancipation and sending Max Verstappen the message that his hand no longer trembles. Last year, paralyzed by the stakes, he had sometimes cracked. To fail again would have been an admission of helplessness, almost abandoning the fight before it had even started. So he clenched his fists on the steering wheel, and limited his glances in the rearview mirror. Nothing should have happened to him anymore.