Lewis Hamilton was in a state of shock as an unlikely victory on debut for Ferrari slipped through his fingers at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
As late rain played havoc with the field, Ferrari opted to keep Hamilton out while most of the frontrunners pitted.
A subsequent safety car, with then-leader Hamilton being held up in slow traffic before eventually pitting for intermediate wet tyres, meant the Brit dropped towards the back of the pack. The 40-year-old ultimately finished 10th, taking just one point from an underwhelming weekend.
Hamilton swore over team radio when he was told of his new position – ninth – and told race engineer Riccardo Adami: “We missed a big opportunity.”
Lando Norris, who started on pole, ended up winning an action-packed race in treacherous conditions at Albert Park, with Max Verstappen in second and George Russell in third.
Hamilton and teammate Charles Leclerc almost collided at the end of the race, but the Monegasque finished in eighth.
The Briton, who started the race in eighth, also got overtaken by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri on the last lap, to cap off a torrid final 15 laps.
“It was very tricky,” Hamilton told Sky Sports afterwards.
“It went a lot worse than I thought it would go, the car was really hard to drive today. I’m grateful I kept it out of the wall, that’s where it wanted to go most of the time.
“A lot to take [in], different power unit in the wet, different driving and setup on the steering wheel. And the guidance of how much more rain was coming… we missed out.
“The information I got was that it was a short shower, and real quick, and it was just the last corner. But then more came.”
Norris survived a rain shower and late charge from Max Verstappen to open his season in style by winning a wild, wacky and thrilling race in which six cars retired after a series of crashes.
With 13 laps remaining, both Norris and Oscar Piastri, who was running behind his McLaren team-mate in second place, ran off the road and through the gravel in slippery conditions.
Norris was able to dive into the pits to move back on the intermediate tyres and salvage victory, but Piastri ended up in the grass at the penultimate corner, scuppering McLaren’s dream of a one-two. He would cross the line in ninth.
Norris took the chequered flag just 0.8 seconds clear of world champion Verstappen, with George Russell third for Mercedes.
“It was a tough, tough race, especially with Max behind me,” Norris said. “I was pushing. It was, especially the last two laps, a little bit stressful, I’m not going to lie.
“But amazing way to start the year, a tough one, because, you know, we went off and we made some big mistakes.
“I went through the gravel, a lot of the damage, just tricky conditions. But these are the ones that are enjoyable and fun and unpredictable.
“We got it wrong a lot last year, so I guess we learned from our mistakes. You know, we lost out on Silverstone and Canada through a race like this.
“So we’ve learned from our mistakes.”
Alex Albon finished a terrific fourth for Williams while Russell’s teammate, 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli, finished an impressive fifth on his F1 debut.
The second race of the 2025 season is the Chinese Grand Prix next week in Shanghai.
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