McLaren's Lando Norris survived changeable weather conditions and held off a late charge from Red Bull's Max Verstappen to take victory in an enthralling opening round of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship on Sunday.

In a wet-dry-wet race with three Safety Car deployments, Norris and teammate Oscar Piastri ran 1-2 for much of the event, but their 20-second advantage to Verstappen was wiped out when Fernando Alonso crashed his Aston Martin on lap 30 of 57.

Mclaren's Lando Norris of Britain drives during the Formula One Australia Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne, Australia, March 16, 2025. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)

Most of the pack used the resultant Safety Car period to change onto dry tyres, but many were caught out by a late burst of rain on lap 44, which caused Piastri to slide agonizingly onto the wet grass and out of contention.

Norris narrowly avoided doing likewise, and instead made a last-gasp call to pit for Intermediate tyres, which dropped him to sixth but then allowed him to retake the lead when the continuing rain obliged the rest of the pack to come in for treaded rubber.

Another Safety Car period on lap 47 once again bunched up the pack, meaning Verstappen was all over Norris' gearbox when racing resumed on lap 52.

Though the Dutchman appeared faster, and had the benefit of DRS, Norris positioned his car well and did not crack under pressure on the five-lap dash to the finish, ultimately seeing out a dramatic win by just over 0.8 seconds.

"A tough race, especially with Max behind me," said Norris afterwards. "I was pushing, especially the last two laps. A little bit stressful, I won't lie, but an amazing way to start the year."

"We got it wrong a lot last year, so we learned from our mistakes. We lost out at Silverstone and Canada through a race like this.

"Not making a mistake that cost me anything, I can take a bit of credit for that.

"A tough but a challenging race. But for McLaren I need to give them a big thanks because they have given me an amazing car," he added.

Behind the top two, George Russell rounded out the podium for Mercedes, with Alex Albon scoring Williams' best result in over three years with an excellent fourth place.

Russell's teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli finished his debut race in fifth, despite losing a position after being hit with a time penalty for an unsafe pit lane release, while Aston Martin's Lance Stroll repeated his sixth place from last year's Australian Grand Prix.

Nico Hulkenberg took Sauber's best result since 2022 with seventh, with a frustrated Piastri salvaging ninth and splitting the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, both of whom lost time by delaying their tyre changes in the late downpour.

Norris' win was the culmination of a weekend where McLaren had underlined their status as championship favorites, with Norris and Piastri having locked out the front row of the grid in Saturday afternoon's qualifying session.

Though Verstappen used the wet conditions and the bunching of the pack to threaten Norris and Piastri, the Dutchman appeared to have no answer to McLaren's long-run pace as the track dried, with Norris and Piastri dropping Verstappen to the tune of around one second per lap in the mid-portion of the race.

With teams having completed little to no wet-weather running in their 2025 cars, the damp conditions caught out several drivers. In addition to Alonso, Liam Lawson, Gabriel Bortoleto, Carlos Sainz and Jack Doohan all came to grief against the barriers, while rookie Isack Hadjar failed even to take the start after spinning into the wall on the formation lap.

The second round of the 2025 Formula 1 season is next weekend's Chinese Grand Prix at the Shanghai International Circuit.