Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri achieved a front-row lockout for McLaren, but the duo were left surprised by Ferrari’s poor qualifying for the 2025 Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton could only manage seventh and eighth for the Scuderia on the streets of Melbourne.
Throughout the practice sessions, the team looked competitive, with Leclerc topping the timing sheets in FP2.
Heading into qualifying, the Moneqasque continued to shine as he comfortably made his way into Q3.
The 27-year-old’s opening run was good enough for third, just shy of Max Verstappen’s time by less than a tenth.
However, he ended the session alongside Hamilton on the fourth row whilst his rivals secured a one-two.
On Thursday, Norris stated that people would be “surprised at how quick” Ferrari would be, labelling the Italian squad as the dark horses for 2025.
Yet, speaking after Saturday’s session, the British driver was left perplexed as to why his rivals finished so far down the pecking order.
“I mean, I expected more,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“They’ve been just as quick as us all weekend, we came into qualifying expecting a fight with Ferrari.
“Although Max was not far behind, as he said, he was a bit surprised to be up here.
“I felt I still took a good amount of risks in the final lap to get pole, but I did expect Ferrari to be quicker.
“Whether that’s because they didn’t put good laps in or struggled more with the car, I don’t know.
“You’d have to ask them; we all expected Ferrari to be quicker because they have been just as quick as us all weekend.
“So it’s more that they just didn’t perform in qualifying for whatever reason.”
Norris says the margins are close in 2025
After the disappointment of qualifying, Leclerc explained the team’s struggles, insisting that the car still has “a lot of potential”.
Both Ferrari drivers were over half a second off pole position, however, Norris pointed out that the intense competitiveness of this year’s grid means that teams may sometimes be misaligned with the true pace of its cars.
He explained: “People are quick to judge: ‘oh he’s there on the timesheets, they’re slower, the car isn’t good’.
“But it’s difficult out there to put a lap together.
“When you see how close one tenth can be, it can easily be three or four positions.
“A tenth is easily within most drivers every lap, especially on a track like this.
“It’s about commitment, pushing that little more on the final lap, getting off the brakes, committing to corners, pushing track limits.
“There’s a tenth in most people, sometimes two-tenths in taking those risks.”
McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella added his thoughts on the matter whilst speaking to Sky Sports F1.
“This is the most factual assessment so far in terms of pecking order, but I don’t really take Ferrari’s performance today at face value,” Stella said.
“I think they’re much closer than the gap in Q3 would tell.”
Piastri similarly confused by Ferrari’s lack of pace
The home-favourite, Piastri, was also left dumbfounded by his rivals’ sub-par performance in qualifying for the Australian GP.
When asked if he agreed with his team-mate’s remarks, he said: “Yeah, I think the same.
“Going into qualifying, we expected Ferrari to be our biggest challenge.
“In FP3, any one of the top four teams looked like they could challenge.
“I don’t know, maybe we just took more sandbags out than everyone else!
“I was pleasantly surprised by the pace we had in qualifying.
“Maybe surprised by some other teams, namely Ferrari, but it’s only one session.
“The headline now is probably going to be ‘McLaren is by far the quickest’, but I think it will change a lot over the next few races.
“If we don’t know who will be quickest, I don’t know how anyone else can.
“It’s going to be a good fight, I expect Ferrari to be fast and competitive through the year.”
READ MORE: Charles Leclerc explains nightmare Ferrari F1 qualifying slump in Australia
