McLaren’s Lando Norris wins wet and wild Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton finishes 10th

MELBOURNE, Australia: McLaren’s Lando Norris has won a chaotic rain-affected Australian Grand Prix, his first at Albert Park, with the Brit just managing to stay ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen following a third safety car late in Sunday’s season-opening Formula 1 race.
Lewis Hamilton had a miserable Ferrari debut. The seven-time champion finished 10th and was annoyed by constant radio messages from his pit team.
Norris started Melbourne’s first wet race since 2010 from pole position.

But, while he initially came under increasing pressure from Piastri, who set a series of fastest laps until his papaya team told him to hold position, the Australian spun at the penultimate corner on lap 44 as the rain intensified and dropped down the order. A late race fightback helped Piastri recover to take ninth place — including passing Hamilton on the final lap — and two championship points.
Verstappen finished 0.895 of a second behind Norris after starting from third on the grid, and took advantage of Piastri’s misfortune and the final safety car and tire stops.

Mercedes’ George Russell closed out the top-three.
“I knew I had a good pace, but I made one mistake in turn six and he got me in the DRS and the DRS around here is probably like a second or something so that allowed it to keep staying within that second,” said Norris, who scored McLaren’s 12th win in Australia to steal the outright record from Ferrari.
“I know what I’m capable of, I know what I can do, but obviously it’s just round one, so we need to go and do it again next weekend and then continue from there. A long season ahead, we’ve just got to keep our head down and keep pushing.”
Williams endured a mix bag, with Alex Albon securing his best result since Abu Dhabi