MELBOURNE — Preseason favourite Lando Norris overcame Max Verstappen, changing weather, a trip across the grass and three Safety Car periods to win a frenzied Australian Grand Prix.

Norris had to hold off the charging Red Bull of Verstappen to win at the end, crossing the line just 0.8s seconds ahead of the reigning world champion.

It was a fitting culmination to an utterly wild opening race to the new season, which was repeatedly plunged into chaos by intermittent rain and the high number of drivers who crashed out during the contest.

Norris said afterwards: “It was amazing, it was a tough race especially with Max [Verstappen] behind me, I was pushing especially the last two laps which was a little bit stressful but an amazing way to start the year.

“It was a tough one because we went off and made some big mistakes, it was just tricky conditions but these are the ones that are enjoyable, fun and unpredictable, but this time we got it right and I’m very happy.”

Norris had led away from pole and, in the moments between the drama, he and McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri out in front pulled effortlessly clear. But a trip off track for both orange cars on Lap 44 as the rain intensified once again saw McLaren lose its nailed-on one-two finish, with Piastri going off at the final corner and tumbling down the order.

Norris avoided a similar fate to clinch his fifth career victory and to establish a championship lead he will hope is his until the end of the year.

Lando Norris took his fifth career win, and fourth win from pole position. Clive Rose/Getty Images

McLaren had looked utterly comfortable in the moments between the chaos, suggesting they will have a dominant car for the early portion of the season at least, but the rain upended everything. At the end, Norris led Verstappen home, with Mercedes driver George Russell claiming the final spot on the podium.

Williams driver Alex Albon took a superb fourth position while Italian teenager Andrea Kimi Antonelli — Lewis Hamilton’s replacement — claimed fifth for Mercedes.

Hamilton’s debut at Ferrari has dominated much of the build-up to the new season but the seven-time world champion had to settle for tenth late on, losing a position to a fabulous Piastri move as he recovered back to ninth.

Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc finished eighth but was left rueing a spin at a crucial moment which cost him a shot at a podium late on, after Ferrari made a late gamble in the rapidly changing conditions which so nearly worked.

The moody Melbourne weather set the tone for the race; heavy rain in the lead up promised a mad spectacle and the drama started before the race was even underway, with Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar crashing out on the formation lap which takes place before the start.

The distraught Hadjar trudged down the paddock with his head down, where he was consoled by Anthony Hamilton, father of Lewis, Hadjar’s boyhood hero. Hadjar’s accident was the beginning of a horrible afternoon for F1’s rookie class of 2025.

When the race started, under-pressure Alpine driver Jack Doohan — who many believe will be replaced by Franco Colapinto at some point this year — spun into the wall at Turn 6, prompting the first Safety Car of the race.

As if to prove it was not just rookies getting caught out in the weather, Williams driver Carlos Sainz squandered a strong position by crashing out as the pack drove at a reduced speed behind the Safety Car a lap later. Midway through the race, with McLaren disappearing into the distance once again, it was the turn of another Spanish driver to neutralise the contest — Fernando Alonso’s crash into the wall on Lap 34 brought out the Safety Car for a second time, bunching the field together once again.

But it was the third and final Safety Car which triggered a breathtaking finish. The constant delays had pushed the race closer and closer to a late rain shower. When it fell, the pack was running on dry tyres — both McLaren drivers could have crashed out as it fell heavier. In the end it was another two rookies who would crash out.

The first was reigning Formula 2 champion Gabriele Bortoleto, who went straight on at the final corner, before Red Bull’s Liam Lawson finished a torrid afternoon by spinning into the wall himself in the final sector. Both drivers retired from the race leaving 14 drivers remaining.

That final restart appeared to set up a grandstand finish between Norris and Verstappen but it was the Englishman who held on, despite a late mistake which brought the Red Bull driver right into his rear view mirror.