Lando Norris took the first pole position of the 2025 Formula One season and will line up alongside McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri for the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday.
Only three teams had both of their drivers in Q3 — McLaren, Ferrari and Williams. Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli and Red Bull’s Liam Lawson were both knocked out in Q1, and Isack Hadjar had the strongest outing of the rookies, qualifying P11.
Max Verstappen secured provisional pole early on in Q3 while the McLaren duo of Norris and Piastri had not ideal first laps, the Briton’s lap time getting deleted after a messy run while the Australian made a mistake. After the first runs, the top 10 was Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc, Piastri, Albon, Tsunoda, Hamilton, Gasly, Sainz and Norris.
Cheers roared around the circuit as Piastri made his way around for his final Q3 run, and he was in the mix, just short of Verstappen’s Sector 1 time. The home hero managed to beat Verstappen’s initial Q3 time but was beaten by Norris by 0.084 seconds.
Meanwhile, despite the offseason hype, the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were outside of the top five, qualifying seventh and eighth. It was Racing Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda who broke into the top five and will line up next to Alex Albon, who qualified sixth.
(Top photo: William West/AFP via Getty Images)
