Lando Norris Wins Season Opening Race In Australian Grand Prix

As the new Formula One season gets underway in Australia, Lando Norris finished atop the podium for McLaren, and behind him was the defending champion, Max Verstappen. 

The season opener was a little tricky with the weather - wet and damp surfaces - drivers had to deploy the tires to match the changing surface conditions. For McLaten, making a decision on tires was the game changer and Red Bull's indecision cost the race, losing by 0.010s to Norris. 

Norris started in P1 for polling in the qualifying session on Saturday. Verstappen gave it a good fight to quickly get ahead, overtaking Oscar Piastri, who started in P2 to get behind Norris. However, the race quickly witnessed a safety car following the retirement of Carlos Sainz, and Jack Doohan who collided and crashed out in Lap 1. Isack Hadjar, who was making his debut, first crashed out. 

Ferrari was another disappointing start as Lewis Hamilton did not get the debut he would have wanted for his new team. Hamilton did impressively well improving to the provisional pole on Lap 47. However, that was shortlived for pitting late on Lap 48 which cost him the position for not making the changes on time. He dropped behind quickly to finish in 10th behind his teammate Charles Leclerc who finished in 8th. Meanwhile, Mercedes' George Russell improved to make the podium in third. 

"It was very tricky and went a lot worse than I thought it would go," said Hamilton on driving a Ferrari in the weather conditions. "The car was really, really hard to drive today."

For much of the race, the weather was unpleasant and the surface was damp hence the slip leading to crashes and retiring. Oscar Piastri spun off the track on Lap 44 costing him his position in provisional P2 and dropping behind to finish in 12th. The incident happened when the team was about to change the duo's tires ahead of the rain, which the radar had indicated would fall.

It was an intriguing race despite the weather conditions that challenged the drivers' skill in handling adverse conditions, especially the debuting ones. The victory puts Norris atop the F1 driver's standing with 25 points.