Plenty was on the line with two minutes left of qualifying for the first race of the 2025 F1 season. Lando Norris, having gone beyond the limit in his first lap, was set to start 10th. There was a second chance – but there would not be a third.
Yet when it mattered most, the man tagged as the favourite for the 2025 F1 world championship pipped his Aussie teammate Oscar Piastri to pole for Sunday’s Australian Grand Prix, to the dismay of thousands in the grandstands.