Australia – Qualifying: Lando Norris takes first pole, Ferrari disappointment

It was hard to identify a clear favorite for pole position after the three free practice sessions, and the qualifying session confirmed the trend: the season promises to be extremely close between the top teams. The drivers fought to the nearest thousandth of a second throughout the session, but it was ultimately Lando Norris who took pole position by a whisker ahead Oscar piastri.

LANDO NORRIS, FIRST POLEMAN OF 2025 ⭐️

Double McLaren before Max Verstappen 👀

Yuki tsunoda et Alexander albon are in front of the two pilots Classic Ferrari for sale 🤯#AustralianGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/3UKF5mWuwu

— CANAL+ F1® (@CanalplusF1) March 15, 2025

McLaren showed on their final lap of Q3 that they currently have a slight advantage over the competition: Max Verstappen, third, was relegated to three tenths of a second behind the reigning world champions. The Dutchman will be joined by George Russell on the second row. However, for Ferrari, there will be disappointment. Charles Leclerc settled for seventh place, ahead of Lewis Hamilton, 8th, who made a mistake in Q2 by spinning out.

Mixed fortunes for the rookies

After the first qualifications of the year, the dunce's cap is for Haas. The Americans, despite having had good winter tests, were unable to do anything on Saturday morning. Oliver Bearman continued his disastrous weekend: after his two track exits in free practice, the Briton was unable to do a single flying lap in Q1, hampered by a faulty gearbox. His teammate Esteban Ocon also did not look his best after his 19th place, more than a second off the leader.

The first segment of the session was also fatal for Liam Lawson (Red Bull) and Kimi Antonelli (Classic Mercedes for sale), who finished well behind their teammates and stopped there. The Kiwi was a little too aggressive, while Mercedes revealed that they had detected damage to the floor that would have cost almost half a second per lap. On the other hand, Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls), Jack Doohan (Alpine) and Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) managed to escape from a Q1 where only six tenths of a second separated Lando Norris, the first, from the fifteenth and last qualifier.

After a very strong performance, Isack Hadjar narrowly missed out on Q3, taking 11th place, less than two tenths behind his teammate Yuki Tsunoda. The Frenchman is still the highest-placed of the six new faces in Formula 1. For his part, the Japanese driver was excellent and managed to secure fifth position on the starting grid, demonstrating the potential of his car the Williams also confirmed their good form by both placing in Q3: a first in the first GP of the year since 2015. Alex Albon will start from the third row (6th) and will be able to aim for a nice shot in the expected rain in Melbourne.

F1 – Australian GP
Qualifications – Ranking

ALSO READ > 'It's become very political': How the F1 issue pushed Michael Andretti out