MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — McLaren’s Lando Norris won a chaotic rain-affected Australian Grand Prix, his first victory at Albert Park, with the British driver 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 and initially came under increasing pressure from his teammate Oscar Piastri, who set a series of fastest laps until his team told him to hold position. Later, the Australian driver 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 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 (Verstappen) 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 take 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 finishing fifth to secure his best result since Abu Dhabi in 2020, and new recruit Carlos Sainz – who won here last year driving for Ferrari – out at the final turn on the opening lap.

Mercedes was thrilled to get two cars in the top four, with Russell on the podium, his first since winning in Las Vegas last year. Rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who replaced Hamilton on the team, showed his class with a superb fightback drive from 16th on the grid, following his qualifying exit, to finish fourth – after his 5-second penalty for an unsafe pit stop release was successfully appealed.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also made the best of the chaotic conditions to move up from 13th to sixth, ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg, bringing home eight points in what has been a difficult weekend for the team with its car uncompetitive in dry conditions.

Ferrari is one of the most successful constructors at the Australian Grand Prix, with 11 wins since its first in 1987, but it will leave Melbourne disappointed with just five points after Charles Leclerc finished eighth and Hamilton 10th.

The Scuderia was seen as a potential championship challenger ahead of the season but has plenty of work to do ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix next week.

The Melbourne race had a thrilling start with Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar out on the formation lap, and Alpine’s Jack Doohan joining Sainz in crashing out on the opening lap.

There were just 14 finishers, after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso hit the turn eight barriers on lap 34, while Red Bull’s Liam Lawson and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto crashed out of the race 10 laps from home in the treacherously wet conditions.

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AP Formula 1: https://apnews.com/hub/formula-one

Race Results

By John Oreovicz – IMSA.COM THE HOME FOR THINGS IMSA RELATED

Porsche Penske Motorsport is clearly on a roll in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship Grand Touring Prototype (GTP) class, and Nick Tandy is reaping the benefits in historic fashion.

By co-driving the No. 7 Porsche Penske Motorsport Porsche 963 with Felipe Nasr and Laurens Vanthoor to victory in the 73rd running of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, Tandy became the 10th driver to claim overall wins in international sports car racing’s three most prestigious endurance races – Sebring, the Rolex 24 At Daytona, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Nasr crossed the line 2.239 seconds ahead of Mathieu Jaminet in the No. 6 Porsche he shared with Matt Campbell and Kevin Estre as Porsche Penske Motorsport earned its 22nd 1-2 finish in IMSA competition and first since Road America last August.

The result gives the No. 7 – the 2024 GTP class champions with a driver lineup consisting of Nasr and Dane Cameron – a solid 91-point lead over the No. 6 in the GTP standings early in the new season.

Porsche’s Saturday joy at Sebring also included a win in the Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) class for the No. 77 911 GT3 R (992) fielded by AO Racing. But the major story was Tandy’s historic feat.

Over the last seven weeks, the 40-year-old Englishman added crown jewel race wins at Daytona and Sebring to accompany his overall triumph at Le Mans in 2015. All were achieved with Porsche.

“You rarely see a sports team or operation that does a single event without any faults or mistakes, and we’ve just celebrated with 40 people who have flawlessly run a car for 36 hours at Daytona and Sebring combined,” said Tandy. “Just a testament to what Porsche and Penske have put together to allow us to go racing. It’s just incredible that we’ve had this run the last two events.

“The ‘Triple Crown’ is probably one of the more historic accomplishments or accolades,” he added. “You look at the names of the people on that list that you are linked with, and that’s an unbelievable thing.”

At Sebring, Nasr qualified the No. 7 Porsche third fastest, then led most of the first hour after BMW Team RLL’s Motul Pole Award winning No. 24 BMW M Hybrid V8 incurred a start procedure penalty.

Nasr was in the No. 7 when it took control of the race just before the halfway mark. From that point, its chief competition came from the No. 31 Cadillac Whelen Racing Cadillac V-Series.R, which paced most of the 10th hour. But Tandy made an aggressive overtake on Frederik Vesti for the lead, and the Cadillac’s speed faded in the cooler night conditions, allowing the No. 6 Porsche and the No. 93 Acura to claim the final two podium positions.

“It was incredible to get the job done once again,” exclaimed Nasr after his 13th career IMSA race win. “After the Rolex 24 At Daytona, we spoke among ourselves and said, ‘What a dream it would be to win Sebring if we can.’ And here we are. It’s just sinking in.”

Jaminet and Campbell were visibly frustrated after coming second best to the Porsche Penske team’s No. 7 car for the second consecutive race.

“They had a little bit more pace than us, and it was pretty much a pace race, with very little yellow,” observed Estre, the No. 6 team’s IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup driver. “Very little frustration, from my side at least. Still good points for the guys (Campbell and Jaminet) and at least we beat everyone else.”

Acura’s sister No. 60 car, the aforementioned No. 31 Cadillac and the pair of BMW M Hybrid V8 cars also factored but all faded from the podium due to some issues in-race. The debuting Aston Martin Valkyrie also ran consistently on debut to finish in ninth place.

LMP2: Efficient Win for Dillmann, Inter Europol

Tom Dillmann and the No. 43 Inter Europol Competition ORECA LMP2 07 did not reach the front of the Le Mans Prototype 2 (LMP2) class field until the very end of the 10th hour of the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring.

Dillmann, the defending WeatherTech Championship LMP2 class champion for Inter Europol with Nick Boulle, led a total of 12 out of 347 laps during Saturday’s 12-hour endurance contest in the car he is sharing with Bijoy Garg and Jeremy Clarke. But they crucially included the last eight, as Dillmann crossed the finish line 1.117 seconds ahead of Sebastien Bourdais (along with John Farano and Sebastian Alvarez) in the No. 8 ORECA prepared by Tower Motorsport.

Clarke, the No. 43 team’s IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup driver, was unhappy with himself after qualifying 10th in class in his first visit to Sebring. But he gained three places during his opening quadruple stint, setting the stage for Garg and Dillmann to advance the car into the top three in the race’s sixth hour.

“It’s a whirlwind,” said Clarke, who won in his WeatherTech Championship debut. “I worked really hard to get up to pace and had an unfortunate ‘qualy.’ My focus today was to bring the car home safe and sound and hand it over to Bijoy and Tom to take it to Victory Lane.”

The final two hours featured a three-way scrap between Dillmann, Bourdais, and Malthe Jakobsen in the No. 04 CrowdStrike by APR ORECA that held the class lead for more than 50 percent of the race before a late penalty dropped it to sixth place at the flag. It was left to Dillmann to hold off the vastly experienced Bourdais down the stretch for his second career IMSA victory. Garg also owns two WeatherTech Championship race wins (2023 Petit Le Mans in LMP3), plus a 24 Hours of Le Mans class win (2024 in LMP2).

“It feels super to win the 12 Hours of Sebring, such a legendary race,” remarked Dillman. “When you race in IMSA you have the chance to compete for the win in some amazing events like Daytona, Sebring, and Petit Le Mans.

“We had a plan; we wanted a quick car in the night, so we had to suffer a bit with the balance in the afternoon. But it worked out well. A mega job by everyone with the team.”

The No. 11 TDS Racing ORECA that Steven Thomas drove to the LMP2 Motul Pole Award finished third in class.

After opening 2025 with a pair of iconic events counting toward the IMSA Michelin Endurance Cup, the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship resumes April 11-12 with the first sprint race of the 2025 season – the 50th anniversary Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, for GTP competitors. The LMP2 field has an extended brea