by F1 correspondent Michael Butterworth
MELBOURNE, March 15 (Xinhua) -- Lando Norris underlined his status as favorite for the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship, securing pole position for Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix at Albert Park.
Norris' time of one minute 15.096 seconds on Saturday was almost one second faster than last year's pole position time, with teammate and local favorite Oscar Piastri lining up alongside him on the front row, as McLaren laid down a marker as the team to beat both in Australia and in 2025 more broadly.
The only serious threat to McLaren's dominance came from reigning world champion Max Verstappen, whose Red Bull looked quicker than it had on Friday, but the Dutchman had a poor start to his final flying lap and could only manage third, 0.385s shy of Norris.
With rain set to fall during Sunday's race, there will be many unknowns for teams and drivers still to contend with in Melbourne, but Norris sounded in confident mood, praising his "unbelievable car" to his mechanics on his slow-down lap.
Behind the top three, George Russell took fourth for Mercedes, with Yuki Tsunoda an excellent fifth for Racing Bulls, ahead of an equally impressive Alex Albon in his Williams.
But it was a disappointing session for Ferrari, whose drivers Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton finished only seventh and eighth, with both seemingly struggling with overheating rear tyres, and Hamilton lucky to make it through to the top 10 shootout after spinning on his final Q2 run.
Pierre Gasly finished the session ninth in the first Alpine, with Albon's teammate Carlos Sainz set to line up 10th for his Williams debut.
Tsunoda's teammate Isack Hadjar narrowly missed out on Q3 and lines up 11th, ahead of Fernando Alonso in his Aston Martin.
Alonso's teammate Lance Stroll follows on in 13th, ahead of Alpine's Jack Doohan and the Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto, who can be pleased at having out-qualified his experienced teammate Nico Hulkenberg for his first Grand Prix.
Knocked out in Q1 and starting a disappointing 16th will be Kimi Antonelli, after the Mercedes rookie dropped a wheel onto the gravel and damaged his floor, with Hulkenberg lining up 17th for Sauber.
Liam Lawson was another who had an underwhelming session, finishing 18th after running wide and aborting his final run. The New Zealander has had a troubled weekend so far, having damaged his floor on Friday before suffering an apparent technical issue at the start of FP3, both of which limited his running.
The back row of the grid will be locked out by the two Haas drivers, with Esteban Ocon ahead of Ollie Bearman, whose torrid weekend continued as he failed to set a lap time with a broken gearbox shortly after leaving the pits.
The Briton has endured a litany of problems so far this weekend, having missed FP2 after damaging his car in an FP1 crash, and then spinning into the gravel on his first flying lap in FP3. ■
