McLaren’s Lando Norris dominated Qualifying to claim pole position for 2025 Australian Grand Prix.
Norris finished a lowly 10th in FP3 but bounced back with a dominant Qualifying session to top all three segments to take pole position, despite his first Q3 lap being deleted, and will be joined on the front-row by his teammate, Oscar Piastri in a McLaren front-row lockout.
FP3
Having missed FP2 following his FP1 crash, Haas’ Oliver Bearman was straight out on track but barely three minutes later, he brought out the red flags again after he spun out at Turn 11 having put his left-rear tyre on the grass upon entry to the corner.
Once the session resumed after a nine-minute stoppage, Alpine’s Jack Doohan set the initial benchmark time of 1m 19.221 but his lap was soon beaten, as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Piastri briefly traded the fastest lap before Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli split the pair at the half-hour mark with Verstappen top on 1m 16.646s.
Many teams opted to predominantly run the soft tyre except for three teams who had gone for the hard tyre in the opening half of the session, including Williams’ Alex Albon who briefly went second quickest on the tyre compound just past the half-hour mark.
Once attention switched to qualifying simulations in the last 22 minutes of the session, Mercedes’ George Russell displaced Verstappen with 1m 16.402 but the four-time champion responded with 1m 16.002s which looked unbeatable.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri however found 0.081s to lower the benchmark time to 1m 15.921 with just eight minutes left which proved enough for the hometown hero to top FP3, as Russell eventually slipped into second ahead of Verstappen with 0.081s splitting the top three.
Red Bull’s Liam Lawson didn’t even get out due to a power-unit issue which left his team frantically trying to fix before Qualifying.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1m 15.921 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.039 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.081 |
| 4 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.267 |
| 5 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 0.285 |
| 6 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.331 |
| 7 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.337 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.457 |
| 9 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | + 0.534 |
| 10 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.676 |
| 11 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 0.786 |
| 12 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 0.798 |
| 13 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.811 |
| 14 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 1.027 |
| 15 | Jack Doohan | Alpine | + 1.072 |
| 16 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 1.225 |
| 17 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 1.349 |
| 18 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 1.452 |
| 19 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | No Time |
| 20 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull | No Time |
Qualifying
Q1
Ocon was first out and set 1m 17.517 as the initial benchmark time whilst his teammate – Bearman pitted at the end of his outlap with a session-ending gearbox issue as his nightmare full-time F1 bow weekend continued.
McLaren continued to demonstrate why they were pre-season favourites as Norris went fastest with 1m 16.003s then a Q1-topping 1m 15.912s, whilst the bottom five compromised of; Stroll, Lawson, Antonelli, Ocon and Bearman at the half-way mark.
At the checkered flag, Bearman qualified last in an all-Haas back row alongside Ocon, with Lawson lining up 18th on his Red Bull debut.
Sauber’s debutant, Bortoleto left it late to demote his experienced teammate – Hulkenberg to 17th just behind Mercedes’ rookie, Antonelli who suffered a Q1 exit on his F1 Qualifying debut and will line up 16th for his first Grand Prix with the Silver Arrows.
Q2
Verstappen was the first driver to hit the track and set 1m 15.688 as the immediate benchmark time which nobody beat until Piastri produced 1m 15.468, with Norris further displacing Verstappen to create a McLaren one-two as he sat 0.088s behind his Australian teammate.
Hadjar, Stroll and Bortoleto meanwhile found themselves sat in the bottom five alongside Alonso and Doohan.
As the checkered flag fell, Hamilton suffered a spin in the middle sector but survived the risk of a Q2 exit as none of the bottom five escaped, with Hadjar qualifying 11th for his maiden F1 race ahead of Aston Martin’s Alonso and Stroll, whilst Doohan and Bortoleto will line up 14th and 15th respectively.
Norris eventually topped the segment with 1m 15.415s set in the final minute of Q2.
Q3
Piastri was first out on track but the Aussie could only muster a scruffy 1m 16.147s lap time as the benchmark, whilst Norris saw his 1m 15.921s lap deleted which left Verstappen to go onto provisional pole with 1m 15.671s ahead of Russell and Leclerc.
Piastri, Albon, Tsunoda, Hamilton, Gasly and Sainz occupied positions 4-9 ahead of Norris who sat tenth provisionally following the deletion of his lap time.
Just before the checkered flag fell, Piastri bounced back with 1m 15.180s to go onto provisional pole to the delight of his home crowd, but Norris found a further 0.084s to snatch his first pole on Australian soil from his teammate in a McLaren front-row lockout.
Verstappen had to settle for third ahead of Russell, Tsunoda, Albon, Leclerc, Hamilton, Gasly and Sainz.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Lando Norris | McLaren | 1m 15.096 |
| 2 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.084 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.385 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.450 |
| 5 | Yuki Tsunoda | Racing Bulls | + 0.574 |
| 6 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.641 |
| 7 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.659 |
| 8 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.877 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 0.884 |
| 10 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.966 |
| 11 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | 1m 16.175 |
| 12 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.278 |
| 13 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.308 |
| 14 | Jack Doohan | Alpine | + 0.688 |
| 15 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 1.345 |
| 16 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 1m 16.525 |
| 17 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | + 0.054 |
| 18 | Liam Lawson | Red Bull | + 0.569 |
| 19 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 0.622 |
| 20 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | No Time |
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