McLaren lock out the front row for the first race of the season, Williams record their first double Q3 appearance in Australia since 2015 and Hadjar records the best result of the rookies. Here are the facts and statistics from qualifying at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix!
NORRIS TAKES FIRST POLE OF THE YEAR
Lando Norris secured the first pole position of the season at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, leading a McLaren front row lockout. Norris took pole position by 0.084 seconds, marking the first time since 2004 that pole position at Albert Park was decided by under a tenth of a second.
Norris recorded the tenth pole position of his Formula 1 career, becoming the 37th driver to have taken as many as ten poles. This was the third time in his career that Norris took pole position at consecutive races.
Norris’ pole marks the first time he has qualified in the top three at the Australian Grand Prix. He remains yet to be out-qualified by a team-mate in his five appearances at Albert Park.
Norris secured McLaren’s sixth pole position at Albert Park, seeing the team equal Mercedes and Ferrari for the most poles at the circuit. This was McLaren’s first pole position at the Australian Grand Prix since Lewis Hamilton took pole with the team in 2012.
Setting a pole lap time of 1:15.096, Norris set a new Track Record at Albert Park, breaking the record set by Max Verstappen last year by 0.819 seconds.
With Oscar Piastri setting the second fastest time, McLaren became the first team to record five front row lockouts at Albert Park, overtaking Ferrari at the top of the list.
Piastri became the third Australian driver to start his home race from the front row of the grid, after Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo was the last Australian to do so, in 2014. This was Piastris’ first top five qualifying result at his home race.
The 2025 Australian Grand Prix is the second race in a row at which McLaren have locked out the front row of the grid. It’s the first time they’ve locked out the front row of the grid since the first two races of the 2012 season.
IN THE TOP 10 AT THE 2025 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
Max Verstappen was McLaren’s closest challenger in qualifying for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. This was the first time since 2019 that Verstappen did not qualify on the front row at Albert Park.
Verstappen continued his Albert Park Q3 appearance streak, qualifying in the top ten for an eighth consecutive appearance – the longest streak at the circuit of any current driver.
Qualifying fifth, Yuki Tsunoda equalled the Red Bull junior team’s best-ever qualifying result at the Australian Grand Prix. Max Verstappen qualified fifth with the team here in 2016.
The 2025 Australian Grand Prix marks the second time that Tsunoda has qualified in the top five in his F1 career. He last did so at the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.
Both Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz reached Q3 at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. It marked Williams’ first double Q3 appearance since the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, which was the team’s only double Q3 appearance of the entire 2024 season.
This was the first time since 2015 that both Williams drivers reached Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix.
Qualifying sixth, Albon recorded the best qualifying result for a Williams driver at Albert Park since Felipe Massa qualified sixth for the 2016 Australian Grand Prix.
Albon recorded his best qualifying result since the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix, where he also qualified sixth. This was Albon’s best Albert Park qualifying result to date and his first Q3 appearance in Australia since 2023.
Tenth place marked Sainz’s second worst qualifying result at Albert Park in his nine appearances at the track. 2019, when he qualified 18th, is the only time he has not reached Q3 here.
With Charles Leclerc qualifying seventh and Lewis Hamilton eighth, Leclerc became Hamilton’s first team-mate to out-qualify him on their first appearance at the same team since Fernando Alonso in 2007.
This was only the second time, after 2022, that Leclerc out-qualified his team-mate at the Australian Grand Prix.
Setting the seventh and eighth fastest times in Q3, this was the first time since 2012 – when neither driver reached Q3 – that both Ferrari drivers qualified outside of the top six at the Australian Grand Prix.
Ninth place for Pierre Gasly saw him equal his best Australian Grand Prix qualifying result to date. He has reached Q3 at Albert Park only once prior to 2025. That was in 2023, when he also qualified ninth.
OUT IN Q2
Isack Hadjar recorded the best qualifying result of the three debutants at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, qualifying 11th and missing out on a place in Q3 by just 0.063 seconds. It means that Lando Norris remains the last driver to reach Q3 on their F1 debut.
Qualifying 12th, Fernando Alonso failed to reach Q3 at the Australian Grand Prix for the first time since 2018.
With both Aston Martin drivers out in Q2, this was the first time since 2022 that the team failed to reach Q3 with both cars.
Of the three drivers making their Formula 1 debut, Gabriel Bortoleto was the only one to out-qualify his team-mate. While experienced team-mate Nico Hulkenberg was out in Q1, Bortoleto made it through to Q2.
OUT IN Q1
Kimi Antonelli exited in Q1 at the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, recording Mercedes’ first-ever Q1 exit at Albert Park and marking the first time that a Mercedes driver had qualified outside of the top 11 positions at the track.
With 17th place, Nico Hulkenberg recorded his worst qualifying result of his 12 appearances at Albert Park.
This was Hulkenberg’s second Q1 exit at Albert Park, having recorded his first in 2024.
Setting the 18th fastest time in qualifying for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, Liam Lawson recorded Red Bull’s third Q1 exit in the last five Albert Park race weekends.
Lawson equalled the second-worst qualifying result of his career, having last qualified 18th at the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix.
Setting the two slowest lap times, Haas equalled their worst-ever Australian Grand Prix qualifying performance. Romain Grosjean and Esteban Gutierrez qualified 19th and 20th in a 22 car field when the team made their debut at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix.
This was Haas’ first double Q1 exit since the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix. It was their third double Q1 elimination in the last 41 races.
Qualifying on the back row for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, Esteban Ocon recorded his first Q1 exit from his six appearances at Albert Park. He had never previously qualified outside of the top 15.
Ollie Bearman failed to set a lap time in qualifying for the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. After crashing out and failing to complete laps in both Free Practice 2 and Free Practice 3, Bearman suffered gearbox issues at the start of Q1 which once again prevented him from completing a lap in the session.
