Norris leads the championship for the first time in his career, Antonelli records the best result for a debutant in over a decade and Albon records his best Williams finish to date. Here are the facts and statistics from the season-opening 2025 Australian Grand Prix!
NORRIS WINS 2025 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX
Lando Norris claimed victory in a thrilling 2025 Australian Grand Prix, with the McLaren driver navigating the wet weather conditions to claim the fifth win of his Formula 1 career.
Norris became the 56th driver to have won as many as five Grands Prix and – having won the last race of 2024 in Abu Dhabi – he recorded back-to-back wins for the first time in his career.
Norris’ win at the season-opening race means that he leads the Drivers’ Championship for the first time in his career. It’s the first time since the 2022 Spanish Grand Prix that a driver other than Max Verstappen has led the championship.
Norris becomes the first McLaren driver to lead the Drivers’ Championship since Lewis Hamilton after the 2012 Canadian Grand Prix.
This was McLaren’s 12th Australian Grand Prix victory, overtaking Ferrari for the most wins at the event in its history on the Formula 1 calendar.
This was only the fourth time in the last 12 Australian Grands Prix that the polesitter won the race. The polesitter here has won three of the last four races.
Norris won by 0.895 seconds – which is the fourth smallest winning margin in Albert Park’s history. Of races which did not finish behind the Safety Car, only the 1998 Australian Grand Prix had a smaller winning margin (0.702 seconds).
Norris maintained his 100% finish rate at Albert Park, having not retired in any of his five appearances at the track. He holds the record for the most appearances in Melbourne without recording a DNF.
Norris’ win makes Britain the first nation to record as many as ten wins at Albert Park, overtaking Germany at the top of the list.
This was the 12th win for a Mercedes-powered car at the Australian Grand Prix, which means Mercedes overtake Ferrari as the most successful engine manufacturer in the event’s history on the F1 calendar.
McLaren recorded their 28th podium finish at the Australian Grand Prix, equalling Ferrari for the record of most team podiums at the event.
Norris’ drive saw him voted Driver of the Day for the 18th time in his career. He won the award with 20% of the vote.
ON THE PODIUM
Finishing as runner-up in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen’s record-breaking 1,029-day reign at the top of the Drivers’ Championship standings came to an end.
Verstappen recorded his third podium finish at Albert Park. He has now stood on every step of the podium here, having finished third in 2019 and won in 2023.
Verstappen scored points for a 22nd consecutive race weekend, equalling the seventh longest scoring streak in Formula 1.
Having started third, this is only the second time in his nine Albert Park appearances that Verstappen has finished in a better position than where he started. He also gained a single position in the 2019 race.
George Russell recorded his best start to a Formula 1 season with third place in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix.
This was the first time since 2022 that Russell reached the chequered flag at the Australian Grand Prix. He also finished third that year, which is the only other time he has picked up a point at the track.
This was the ninth time in the last ten races at Albert Park that at least one Mercedes driver has finished on the podium.
Norris’ win and Russell’s third place made this the tenth consecutive Australian Grand Prix in which a British driver finished on the podium, extending the record for the longest podium streak for a nation at Albert Park.
IN THE POINTS AT ALBERT PARK
Kimi Antonelli impressed on debut. Having started 16th, he finished fourth before a time penalty dropped him to fifth. The penalty was later overturned and he was classified fourth, recording the best finish for a debutant since Kevin Magnussen finished as runner-up in the 2014 Australian Grand Prix.
Discounting drivers in the Indianapolis 500 from 1950 to 1960, this was the 32nd time in F1 history that a driver has finished in the top four on their Grand Prix debut. It is only the tenth time it has happened since 1970.
Antonelli became the second-youngest points scorer in F1 history, at 18 years, 6 months and 19 days old. He is 13 months older than Max Verstappen was when he scored the first points of his career at the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix.
Making up 12 places, Antonelli gained the most positions of any driver in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. Antonelli recorded the best-ever result for the driver starting 16th at Albert Park. The previous best result from this position was sixth, recorded by Ricardo Zonta in 2000.
With McLaren and Mercedes both scoring 27 points in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, the lead of the Constructors’ Championship is tied for the first time in 19 years. It was last tied after the 2006 Bahrain Grand Prix, when Renault and McLaren scored the same number of points in the first race of the year.
Alex Albon finished in fifth place in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, recording his best result to date in his time at Williams. This was Albon’s best result since finishing fourth with Red Bull at the 2020 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Albon recorded Williams’ first top five result at the Australian Grand Prix since Felipe Massa finished fifth in 2016. This was Williams’ best result in any race since George Russell finished on the podium at the 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.
This was Albon’s first points-scoring race since the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix. It was also the second time he has scored points at Albert Park, having finished tenth in 2022.
Finishing in sixth place, Lance Stroll scored points for the first time since the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix. This was Stroll’s first top six finish since last year’s Australian Grand Prix, when he also finished sixth.
This was the third time that Stroll has gained seven positions from where he started at Albert Park.
Nico Hulkenberg finished seventh in his first race with the Sauber team since 2013. His result means that Sauber have now scored more points in a single race in 2025 than they did in the entire 2024 season. Zhou Guanyu’s eighth place in the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix was the only time the team scored points last year.
Seventh place marks the Sauber team’s best result at Albert Park since Felipe Nasr finished fifth in 2015.
This was Hulkenberg’s sixth seventh place finish in his last eight appearances at Albert Park.
Hulkenberg recorded his best Grand Prix result since finishing sixth in the 2024 British Grand Prix. Gaining ten positions in the race, this was the most places Hulkenberg gained in a race since making up 12 places in the 2020 Eifel Grand Prix.
Hulkenberg’s points made Germany the second nation to have scored as many as 8,000 points in F1.
Finishing eighth in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, Charles Leclerc finished outside of the top five for the first time since the 2024 British Grand Prix.
This was the first time Leclerc finished the Australian Grand Prix in a worse position than where he started.
With Leclerc eighth and Lewis Hamilton tenth on his Ferrari debut, this was only the second time since 2010 that neither Ferrari driver has finished in the top five at the Australian Grand Prix. 2023 is the only other time it has happened in that time frame.
Leclerc became the first team-mate of Hamilton to finish ahead of him in their first race as team-mates since Fernando Alonso on Hamilton’s debut at the 2007 Australian Grand Prix.
This was Hamilton’s 14th points-scoring appearance at Albert Park, equalling Fernando Alonso at the top of the list.
Hamilton’s tenth place made him the fourth driver – after Michael Schumacher, Kimi Raikkonen and Fernando Alonso – to have scored a point in as many as 19 different Formula 1 seasons.
Hamilton failed to win for the 11th race in a row. That makes this the second-longest win-less streak of his F1 career to date.
After spinning out late on in the race, Oscar Piastri dropped from what was set to be the first home podium finish for an Australian driver to the back of the field. Piastri recovered some points in the closing stages and finished ninth.
This was the second race in a row that Piastri finished outside of the top eight, having finished inside the top eight at all of the previous 17 Grands Prix.
Piastri maintained his 100% points-scoring rate at Albert Park, having scored on all three appearances. Kimi Antonelli joined the club of 100% point-scorers at the track, which also includes Paul di Resta, Gerhard Berger, Sebastien Bourdais and Nicola Larini.
THE OTHER FINISHERS
With Yuki Tsunoda finishing 12th and Isack Hadjar failing to make the start, this was the first time since 2018 that the Red Bull junior team failed to score a point at the Australian Grand Prix.
Finishing 14th and last of the drivers still running at the end of the race, Ollie Bearman recorded the worst result of his four Formula 1 appearances to date.
THE RETIREES
The tricky weather conditions caught out F1 debutant Isack Hadjar on the formation lap of the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. He crashed out and failed to start the race. He is the first driver to crash out before completing a lap on his F1 debut since Nikita Mazepin at the 2021 Bahrain Grand Prix.
Hadjar’s crash brought about a second formation lap, which saw the race distance drop from the scheduled 58 laps to 57. This was the first race to not reach full distance since the 2024 Sao Paulo Grand Prix, when Lance Stroll spun out on the formation lap, as well as the sixth Albert Park race not to reach full distance. The 2017 Australian Grand Prix was the last Melbourne race to fall short of its scheduled distance.
Hadjar became the first driver to record a DNS at the first race of the season since Daniil Kvyat at the 2016 Australian Grand Prix.
Hadjar made this the third year in a row that the driver starting 11th has failed to finish the Australian Grand Prix.
Jack Doohan was the first driver to retire from the 2025 Australian Grand Prix, crashing out on the opening lap.
Doohan made 2025 the second year in a row that an Alpine driver has recorded the first DNF of the season. This was the first time since 2021 that the first DNF of the year happened on the first racing lap.
Doohan was not the only driver to retire on Lap 1. At the last corner on the first lap, Carlos Sainz hit the barriers and brought an early end to his afternoon. Sainz became the first driver to retire from tenth on the grid at Albert Park since Adrian Sutil in 2010.
This was the third year in a row that the winner of the previous Australian Grand Prix retired within the first four laps of the race.
Fernando Alonso was the third driver to retire from the race, just after half distance.
Gabriel Bortoleto failed to finish on his F1 debut, crashing out 12 laps from the end.
In his first race at Red Bull, Liam Lawson became the fifth and final retiree in the 2025 Australian Grand Prix. Having recorded the first retirement of his career last time out in Abu Dhabi, Lawson recorded successive retirements for the first time.
Lawson recorded Red Bull’s third DNF in the last four Albert Park races.
The 2025 Australian Grand Prix had a weekend attendance figure of 465,498 – the largest figure in the Melbourne event’s history.
