The 2025 Australian Grand Prix was wet and wild
With the Formula 1 circus finally returning to Australia as the first race, Melbourne proved to be one hell of a season opener with a lot of heart-pounding action and excitement all within that three-hour race period on Sunday. Here’s a quick summary of what happened.
Wet weather chaos
Whenever rain comes into play, it’s guaranteed to be a very exciting race for the fans, but much more of a challenge for the teams and drivers as they have to contend with conditions they might have not practiced for.
The first casualty was Isack Hadjar, where his Racing Bull was put into the wall due to the slippery conditions. This may seem like a nightmare debut for the rookie, but it was completely understandable as he wasn’t the only one who had to retire from the race.
Shortly after a 15-minute delay and the additional formation lap, Jack Doohan’s Alpine found itself in the barrier on the first racing lap, with Carlos Sainz and his Williams also in the wall shortly after, causing yet another long safety car session.
Everyone switches to the intermediate tire compound as the conditions are still wet and slowly drying up. Shortly after, yet another “rookie” in Fernando Alonso has spun out and crashed his Aston Martin on Lap 34.
This safety car period is where majority of the field pits for slick tires, and then all of a sudden, the team radios light up, reminding all the drivers of impending rain. This time around, it’s not another drizzle.
Here we see the leaders take a gamble until we see the two leading McLarens get compromised in terms of track position due to the rain, followed by Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) and Liam Lawson (Red Bull) in the barriers, bringing the total amount of casualties to six drivers.
The remaining rookies
Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) had an amazing race, even after he spun out once during the rain-related chaos, he smoothly made his way up to P4, passing Alex Albon (Williams) in the penultimate stages of the race.
After a crash in FP1 and starting from the pits, Oliver Bearman (Haas) had a very conservative drive, finishing P14. Despite this, he was the only other rookie to have survived today’s race.
The “main characters” of this season
Lando Norris is maturing as a driver, remaining very calm and collected despite the extremely challenging conditions. Even when the heavy rain caught the two McLarens and he lost a few places during the chaos thanks to an excursion onto the gravel pit, Lando managed to push through and claim the P1 finish that he held for the majority of the race.
Unfortunately for Oscar Piastri, he was part of that carnage when the rain started falling on Lap 44. Unlike his teammate, he was unlucky enough that he went onto the gravel, and then spun out on the grass after. Thankfully, he managed to recover up to P9, earning at least two points.
Max Verstappen’s racecraft showed well despite having a slightly compromised strategy mid-race, the four-time world champion showed all of his experience, even coming very close to Lando in the last few laps with DRS, ultimately finishing in P2.
Despite Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc having a decent qualifying session, the two Ferraris lost out in the late stages of the race due to a missed opportunity to pit early. Aside from a few teething issues and a hilarious exchange between Charles and his engineer, the two finished in P10 (Hamilton) and P8 (Leclerc), respectively.
One surprise of the race is George Russell, bringing his Mercedes up to P3 despite a relatively uneventful drive, where even the commentators mentioned that they hadn’t talked about him at all during the race. He’s followed by Alex Albon (Williams) in a stellar P4, Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) in P6, and Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) in P7.
The next race will take place at the Shanghai International Circuit in China next Sunday, at 3:00pm (Philippine Standard Time).
Photos from Formula 1
