MELBOURNE — Lando Norris survived a rain shower and late charge from Max Verstappen to open his season in style by winning a wild, wacky and thrilling Australian Grand Prix.With 13 laps remaining, both Norris and Oscar Piastri, who was running behind his McLaren team-mate in second place, ran off the road and through the gravel in the slippery conditions.Norris was able to dive into the pits to move back on the intermediate tyres and salvage victory, but Piastri ended up in the grass at the penultimate corner, scuppering McLaren’s dream of a one-two, with him finishing ninth.
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addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }Norris took the chequered flag just 0.8 seconds clear of world champion Verstappen with George Russell third for Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton finished a disappointing 10th on his Ferrari debut.
Williams’ Alex Albon was fourth, one place ahead of Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.The late chaos had promoted Hamilton to the lead after Ferrari kept him out on slick rubber. But the seven-time world champion was forced to follow the rest of the field and move on to wets.
Hamilton was furious with Ferrari’s decision to keep him on the slick tyres.if(window.adverts) { window.
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adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }“I didn’t think it was going to rain much,” said Hamilton. “We missed a big opportunity.
”Hamilton dropped to ninth, swearing when he wa.
