Hello and welcome to this Total Motorsport live blog for Free Practice 1 at the F1 2025 Australian GP from the Albert Park Circuit as teams and drivers have their first opportunity to fine-tune their cars ahead of the Formula 1 season opener in Australia.
While the buzz is firmly around McLaren as early favourites, rival teams are gearing up to challenge that status. Following a strong showing in pre-season testing, many in the paddock have been quick to anoint McLaren as the team to beat. But Lando Norris is urging caution.
Meanwhile, Red Bull is hoping to spring a surprise of their own. Despite downplaying their chances, Max Verstappen revealed that Red Bull has made some tweaks to the car, aiming to improve drivability. Ferrari, while more subdued in testing, is quietly optimistic about finding extra performance. Charles Leclerc explained that there’s still plenty of untapped potential in the car.
Mercedes, meanwhile, is entering 2025 with George Russell now firmly established as team leader following Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari. Further down the grid, Alpine and Williams are both entering the new season with fresh optimism. Although Aston Martin enters 2025 under the radar, one major figure looms large over their season: Adrian Newey.
Total-Motorsport.com’s F1 2025 Australian GP live updates for Free Practice 1 will offer fans unparalleled insight into team strategies, reliability concerns, and potential frontrunners. So stay tuned with us as FP1 at the F1 2025 Australian GP unfolds live from Albert Park.
F1 2025 Australian GP LIVE FP1: Latest Updates
That’s all for now
With all said and done as far as Free Practice 1 goes, all eyes turn to FP2 to see whether McLaren can remain top of the hill in Australia or if one of their rivals will bite back.
More from the Azerbaijan GP
Catch up with Total Motorsport’s latest Azerbaijan GP coverage, including George Russell’s dramatic Baku victory, the full race classification, the fastest lap result, and the Driver of the Day from the 2026 race.
You can follow with live updates from Total-Motorsport.com here.
Your FP1 results as Norris sets pace
Start as you mean to go on is the message from the McLaren team as Lando Norris tops the opening Free Practice session of the year in Australia, leading home Carlos Sainz and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc at the Albert Park Circuit.
Williams impressed through Sainz and led much of the timing charts before eventually being displaced at the very end of the session but the picture looks good for James Vowles based on this sample of one.
However the same cannot be said for Haas and Oliver Bearman who find themselves already in a race against to the clock after the 19-year-old from Chelmsford crashed at Turns 9 and 10 and wrecked his front-right suspension. Not the start to his life as a full-time rookie that he expected.
CHEQUERED FLAG: FP1 comes to an end with Lando Norris on top for McLaren
Carlos Sainz’s run at the top of the timing boards comes to an end at the very death of FP1 at the 2025 Australian GP as the Spaniard is pipped by his old teammate and team, Lando Norris and McLaren, in the dying embers.
Norris set a 1:17.252 to sit 0.149 ahead of anyone else and found himself 0.209 ahead of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in an encouraging start to the campaign for the Brit and his title ambitions.
FP1 Top 10:
1. Norris (McLaren) – 1:17.252
2. Sainz (Williams) +0.149
3. Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.209
4. Piastri (McLaren) +0.418
5. Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.444
6. Albon (Williams) +0.461
7. Russell (Mercedes) +0.464.
8. Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.484
9. Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.595.
10. Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.805.
Two minutes to go: Russell almost hits the wall
George Russell stops what must have been inches from the tyre barriers at the Albert Park Circuit as the Brit dips his rear-right tyre into the grass and spins off towards the wall.
Fortunately he shows good car control and the brakes do their jobs and he continues on without so much as a scratch on the car and seemingly slightly bemused with his race engineer.
Six minutes to go: Difference between McLaren and Ferrari?
Lewis Hamilton comes onto the radio to say he’s struggling to turn the car into the corners in his first Free Practice 1 session with Ferrari and he’s 0.610 down on Charles Leclerc’s time, which is second overall by the Monegasque.
Meanwhile McLaren? They look planted to the floor. Lando Norris throws his papaya car into Turn 12 without so much as a downshift or brake as all the Brit does is slightly lifts off to prevent running wide. Impressive stuff from Woking’s star and their aerodynamicists.
GREEN FLAG: 10 minutes to go: Cars back on track
The stricken Haas has been removed from the Albert Park Circuit and drivers can get back out on their qualifying simulations with just 10 minutes to gather that all-important data.
But some fancy racing as Lando Norris finds himself battling both an Alpine and the Racing Bull of Yuki Tsunoda for track position with time running out. They’re dusting off the cobwebs ahead of Sunday’s lights out.
13 minutes to go: Another look at Bearman’s crash
It’s a novice mistake from the teenager with just three Grand Prix races under his belt as he carries too much speed into the fast Turn 9-10 sequence, and one we’ve all no doubt made on the Codemasters F1 games.
Sadly for Oliver Bearman, there’s no “reset to track” button to hit and his FP1 comes to a disappointing end. That’s already Haas on the backfoot as far as the budget cap is concerned, which could hurt them through into the 2026 regulations change too.
17 minutes to go: Carlos Sainz leads the times
Williams continue to look like a solid package as Carlos Sainz now jumps to the top of the times on the soft tyres with a 1:17.401 to lead Charles Leclerc by 0.060 and Max Verstappen by 0.295.
Verstappen and Sainz just had a scary moment too. Replays show the Red Bull driver goes flying through the high-speed right-handed Turn 6 and finds the Williams going slowly in the middle of the track.
Fortunately the 27-year-old backs off in time and both live to fight another day with the Spaniard sheepishly apologising to his former teammate.
20 minutes: RED FLAG: BEARMAN CRASHES OUT
Oliver Bearman is the first rookie to push too far over the limits as he runs into the gravel at the exit of Turn 10, comes back onto the track, his car bottoms out and spins off into the barriers.
That’s damage to his front-wing, front-right tyre and rear-right tyre and probably his floor too. That’s the 19-year-old Brit’s afternoon over and a repair job for Haas to kick off their season.
26 minutes to go: Pierre Gasly almost loses it
The drivers are wasting no time starting to push their cars again as Pierre Gasly has to catch a big slide with his Alpine to prevent him from going straight into the walls.
There’s a reason why they train their reflexes so much and that’s why… The Frenchman is currently 11th, 0.809 off the pace.
28 minutes to go: Soft runs begin
Drivers are now fitting their soft tyres to get some qualifying simulation data for their engineers to mull over and trawl through and it’s working out well for Max Verstappen so far as he goes to the top of the times with a 1:17.696 ahead of George Russell by just 0.020. Preseason predictions have Red Bull and Mercedes nip-and-tuck so one lap could be the deciding factor between their battle.
Then comes Charles Leclerc, who is yet to run the softs. Fourth is Carlos Sainz on the soft, 0.223 back. How competitive will Williams be this campaign?
31 minutes to go: Piastri the latest to run wide at Turn 6
It now appears that Max Verstappen, Liam Lawson, Oscar Piastri, George Russell and Jack Doohan have all dipped into the gravel at the exit of Turn 6 as they figure out the limits of this Albert Park Circuit.
They’ll have to get that under control ahead of Saturday’s qualifying session otherwise that could be a costly make when every tenth counts. for now? It’s just slightly embarrassing and probably annoying.
36 minutes to go: GREEN FLAG
The track is live once again and all the cars are quickly heading back out, with both McLarens leading the queue in the pit-lanes, closely followed by the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc. So what’s your order as we approach the halfway point?
Leclerc continues to lead with a 1:17.880, narrowly beating George Russell in the Mercedes by 0.150. Then comes Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar some 0.338 back.
Lando Norris is fourth and trails the top of the timing boards by 0.373 and then comes Red Bull’s Max Verstappen some 0.445 back. Lewis Hamilton in sixth is just over half a second off the pace of his colleague in his first outing for Ferrari.
42 minutes to go: RED FLAG
Jack Doohan copies Max Verstappen and runs wide at Turn 6, thus kicking some gravel onto the track at the Albert Park Circuit and the FIA red flag the race to allow the marshals to clean it up. It should be a pretty routine fix for the track crews.
George Russell asks Mercedes to check the floor of his car too, did he manage to run into some gravel also?
45 minutes to go: Do we have a competitive field?
The hype through the past few months has been that we could have at least four teams battling for Grand Prix wins and the titles throughout the 2025 Formula 1 season. So is that prophecy looking true?
It’s still early doors but there’s good signs at the moment with five different teams in the top five positions as Isack Hadjar slots his Racing Bulls car alongside the likes of Ferrari, Mercedes, McLaren and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull. That would certainly be a shock to the preseason projections…
48 minutes to go: Verstappen dips into the gravel
Max Verstappen’s fearless mentality already has him wringing the neck of his Red Bull car as he pushes slightly beyond the limit and dips into the gravel at Turn 6.
There’s not too much harm done and he goes third fastest, 0.445 back from Charles Leclerc’s now 1:17.880. Both on the medium tyres.
51 minutes to go: Leclerc sets early FP1 pace
It’s a 1:18.317 for Charles Leclerc and Ferrari to kick off their afternoon in Melbourne on the medium tyre as they lead McLaren’s Oscar Piastri by a comfortable 0.382.
However, there’s a long way to go yet so the times are far from a true picture of what the battle for pole position will be. More to come from the rest of the field.
Who are the home heroes?
Everyone knows Oscar Piastri. The McLaren star is famed for his steely mentality and quick pace, leading to two wins at the 2024 Hungarian and Azerbaijan GPs last season. The 23-year-old grew up in Melbourne so racing at the Albert Park Circuit is particularly special to him and he’ll hope to win the race this weekend.
But he’s not alone! Jack Doohan in the Alpine is also representing Australia. The son of the five-time MotoGP champion, Mick, Doohan was born in Queensland some 1000 miles away but this is his home race too. You can spot him with the racing number #7, previously sported by Kimi Raikkonen.
And finally, although he’s not Australian, Liam Lawson might view this as a home race too. The Red Bull driver is born in New Zealand, which doesn’t actually host a Grand Prix. There will be a large part of the crowd here cheering him on too but he needs to be careful. Car 30 just tagged the wall on entry at Turn 9…
GREEN FLAG: FP1 begins and so does the 2025 season!
It’s Nico Hulkenberg first out on track at the Albert Park Circuit to kick-off Free Practice 1 at the 2025 Australian GP. All the theories and questions from testing will slowly start to be answered over the next few days.
Will it be McLaren or Ferrari leading the way to the title? Can Charles Leclerc finally bring glory to Ferrari? Will Lando Norris give his team their first drivers’ title since 1999?
Teams have one hour to begin to work on their set-ups and they’re already using it to gather data as Hulkenberg rocks some aero rakes on his Sauber, whilst his teammate Gabriel Bortoleto has red flow-vis on the front-wing.
Will Max Verstappen defend his title?
Max Verstappen did just enough to hang on throughout the 2024 Formula 1 season against McLaren’s Lando Norris, but with the scores set back to zero, will the Dutchman have enough to defend his title?
First up is FP1, and he and Red Bull will hope the RB21 is quick, consistent and ultimately predictable after their struggles last year.
Hamilton x Ferrari: The most exciting driver move ever?
After over 12 months of hype, Lewis Hamilton is about to receive his official debut in red after his move to Ferrari. Will he win an eighth world title? We don’t know yet, but the excitement is in the air and even the 40-year-old feels it.
“For me, I’ve been just itching to get going,” Hamilton told members of the media, including Total-Motorsport.com. “I guess it’s been a long time coming.
“And to think that this is my first Grand Prix, one of the one of those other firsts with the team, I feel very honoured and grateful to have the opportunity.”
Formula 1 is officially back!
After several long months, competitive Formula 1 finally returns with the 2025 Australian Grand Prix live from the Albert Park Circuit in Melbourne, the home of Oscar Piastri.
With McLaren looking the clear favourites based on preseason testing, will they hit the ground running in Free Practice 1 or will we see Ferrari, Red Bull, Mercedes or someone else upset the script?
Stay tuned with Total-Motorsport.com to find out!
Where to Watch 2025 Australian GP FP1?
For viewers in the United States, Free Practice 1 will be shown on ESPNEWS, with streaming coverage via ESPN+ and Disney+.
In the UK, all sessions, including FP1 are available on Sky Sports F1. And fans in Australia can catch all the action on Fox Sports, Kayo Sports, and Foxtel.
What time is FP1 at the Australian GP?
Free Practice 1 begins at 12:30pm local time on Friday in Melbourne, Australia. That means an early start for F1 fans in the UK, where FP1 begins at 1:30am on Friday morning.
Over in the USA, the FP1 session from Albert Park begins at 9:30pm ET on Thursday evening, which means a 6:30pm PT start.
