Wet and wild win!

Lando Norris kept his cool in a rainhit and incidentpacked seasonopening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday to edge out world champion Max VerstappenThe polesitting Briton took the chequered flag by less than a second from the Dutchman with Mercedesrsquo George Russell finishing third in a chaotic race in Melbourne that saw three drivers crash before the end of the first lapWith the safety car repeatedly forced into action after a slew of accidents on the wet Albert Park circuit Norris held on to clock a fifth Grand Prix win Norris came into the season as the favourite for the 2025 driversrsquo title and cemented his status as the man to beatMcLarenrsquos Lando Norris with the Australian GP winnerrsquos trophy in Melbourne yesterday PicsGetty ImagesldquoIt was amazing a top race especially with Max behind me The last two laps were a little bit stressful not going to lie Tricky conditions but these are the ones that are enjoyable and we ended up on top so Irsquom happyrdquo Norris saidAlso ReadNZ thrash Pakistan by nine wicketsVerstappen who is aiming to become only the second driver to win five straight world titles after Michael Schumacher was in the hunt early but an uncharacteristic error on lap 18 dented his chances until another safety car put him back in the frameldquoIt was a difficult race but at the end it was funrdquo said the Dutch star ldquoI was fighting for the win but in the end Irsquom just happy to bring it home and score good points This is a good start for usrdquo Verstappen addedIn the unpredictable conditions with rain onandoff Mercedesrsquo Kimi Antonelli finished fourth on his debut while Williamsrsquo Alex Albon came fifth Aston Martinrsquos Lance Stroll was sixth ahead of Sauberrsquos Nico Hulkenberg Ferrarirsquos Charles Leclerc came eighth with Norrisrsquo teammate Oscar Piastri and Hamilton rounding out the top 10Ferrari was hard to drive Hamilton on 10thplace finishLewis Hamilton said on Sunday that he found his new Ferrari ldquoreally really hard to driverdquo in the wet as the seventime world champion endured a difficult start to his career with the Prancing HorseLewis HamiltonHamilton 40 is hoping for a new lease of life after his bombshell switch from Mercedes but it has been a steep learning curve since he joined the Italian team in January It culminated in a disappointing 10th in the seasonopening Australian Grand Prix where he was well off the pace of McLaren Red Bull and Mercedes and behind teammate Charles Leclerc in a rainhit raceldquoIt the race was very tricky and went a lot worse than I thought it would go The car was really really hard to drive today For me Irsquom just grateful I kept it out of the wall because thatrsquos where it wanted to go most of the timerdquo said HamiltonThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever