Lando Norris won the last qualifying session of the previous season and will also start the first race in 2025 from pole. The entire front row in Melbourne will be occupied by McLaren cars – this is the 66th such achievement in the history of the British team.
Lando Norris (1st): “The mood is great! It's the perfect start to the season, so congratulations to our team. They are doing incredibly well and we are continuing to perform at the same level as we were at the end of last season.
However, we have only qualified behind us, let's wait for tomorrow's race. It promises to be difficult, but today we did everything perfectly. The car is capable of great speed, and when you manage to put everything together, it is incredibly fast – it's just very difficult to put everything together.
Today there was an interesting rivalry between me and Oscar, especially after my first attempt when I went off the track. I knew that on the second fast lap I would be in a difficult position: I had to take serious risks, but at the same time try to avoid mistakes. The difficulty was in getting the right mental attitude, but everything worked out, so I am very pleased.
Looking ahead to tomorrow's race, as always I'm trying not to get ahead of myself. I'm confident in the car, I'm starting from a great position, but we haven't driven in the rain at all yet. We know how fast Max Verstappen can be in the wet, so we'll see. There will be plenty of opportunities for everyone to excel tomorrow, but we'll also learn a lot along the way.”
Oscar Piastri (2nd): “Overall I’m happy, because of course it’s great to start the year from the front row. It’s true that I ended up one position lower than I wanted, but it’s still a great start to the season.
Now we need to get into the right frame of mind and then we'll see what tomorrow has in store for us. I just wasn't fast enough in the qualifying finals, but we have a long season ahead and I'm happy with the way it's starting.
“I lost a little bit of time in the third sector compared to the previous lap. Also, I locked the brakes and went off the track on the first run in the final session. I didn't want to make that mistake twice, so I probably preferred not to take any risks, even though I could have gone a little faster.”
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