Lando Norris claims the victory in the dramatic race of the F1 opening season while Lewis Hamilton disappoints in Ferrari’s debut

CNN
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Lando Norris claimed a dramatic victory in this year’s opening race Formula one Season in Australia on Sunday.

The British pilot was able to defend himself from the challenging conditions and the threat of the four -time current Max Verstappen champion to overcome the podium and start his season with the maximum 25 points.

Norris began the race in the pole after McLaren dominoes on Saturday qualifying -Your teammate Oscar Piastri completed the first row to start secondly.

But even after McLaren’s imperative rating form, Norris distrusted the threat of third on the network, and was right to be.

In a career strongly affected by security cars and, in the last stages, Rain, Verstappen never allowed Norris for the comfort of a great advantage and pursued him until the final bitter.

When the checkered flag was finally stirred, Verstappen was only 0.895 seconds from Norris, who admitted that he had to check his mirrors several more times more than he would have liked.

“It was amazing,” the 25 -year -old told the transmission after his victory. “A difficult career, especially with Max behind me, was pressing. It was, especially the last two laps, a little stressful, I will not lie, but a surprising way to start the year. ”

Norris admitted that it was not a perfect race, but he made enough in the conditions to win the victory with his team.

“We are very wrong last year, so I guess we learned from our mistakes,” he added.

George Russell de Mercedes completed the podium in third place with his adolescent rookie teammate Kimi Antonelli Racing in an impressive way to finish fourth. Antonelli originally received a penalty of time that was later revoked.

Below in the race, it was a disappointing day for Lewis Hamilton, since he made a disappointing debut for Ferrari, ending in tenth.

The 40 -year -old joined Ferrari before the 2025 season after spending 12 successful years with Mercedes.

However, you will expect great improvements if you are going to add to your seven world pilot championships, and Ferrari’s first since 2007.

“It was much worse than I thought I would go,” an honest Hamilton said Sky Sports after what he described as a first “very complicated” first race of the season.

“The car was very, very difficult to drive today. For me, I am grateful to have kept it out of the wall because it really wanted to go most of the time. ”

Hamilton and Ferrari will wait for a quick change before next week’s race.

The F1 season is directed to China for its second race weekend after a brief change. The race takes place at 2 pm et on March 23.