Norris edges Piastri for pole as McLaren lock out Melbourne front row

MELBOURNE: Lando Norris clinched pole position on Saturday for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri as McLaren fired a warning shot to their rivals.

In scorching hot conditions at Melbourne´s Albert Park, world champion Max Verstappen came third in tense qualifying.

Mercedes´ George Russell will keep Red Bull´s four-time world champion company on the second row. Lewis Hamilton will start in eighth on his Ferrari debut.

“It´s the perfect way to start the year. A big congrats to the team, everyone has done an amazing job to start with a one-two,” said Norris after his 10th career pole. “But it is just quali, right? Let´s see tomorrow,” he added.

“The car is extremely quick. When you put it together it is unbelievable, but it is hard to put it together. “I´m never going to get ahead of myself, I´m confident the car is in a good place but we have never run it in the wet.” The forecast for Sunday´s race is cooler temperatures and rain.

Norris eclipsed his rivals with a flying lap of one minute 15.096 seconds on soft tyres, 0.084sec ahead of Piastri. “Pretty happy, great to start the year on the front row,” said Piastri.

“Pretty happy with how qualifying went but just not quite enough in Q3, but it is a long season so a good start,” added the Australian. “Maybe left a little bit on the table.” No Australian driver has won their home race since Alan Jones in 1980, but that was a non-championship race before Australia was added to the F1 calendar in 1985.

Verstappen, who was the pole-sitter in 2023 and 2024, was three-tenths behind Norris. But his rookie teammate Liam Lawson, who replaced the underperforming Sergio Perez, failed to get out of Q1.

Mercedes´ teenager Kimi Antonelli was another big Q1 casualty after gravel damaged the floor of his car.