F1 Today | A Senna-like Verstappen can win title, Norris storms to pole, Tsunoda proves point

With the first relevant session now completed the F1 circus now looks toward the first round of the season and it promises to be an appropriate start to what it’s set to be a wonderful season of racing action. This is F1 Today.

The 1996 world champion sees that no matter what Red Bull will give Verstappen to work with, the defending world champion is always a contender. “Max is always there. Max is. You can’t discount the guy, he’s formidable. And if Red Bull haven’t got the best car, he will make it the best car. Bit like Senna,” he compared Verstappen to the Brazilian legend in the Formula for Success podcast.

Lando Norris topped the first qualifying session of the 2025 season in Australia with a 1:15.096, beating teammate Oscar Piastri and defending champion Max Verstappen who rounded off the Top 3 at the Albert Park semi-permanent track.

After the first set of runs in the final session, Max Verstappen led, however, the McLarens managed to fight back to be on the front row of the grid. The Dutchman eventually finished in P3, ahead of George Russell.

Yuki Tsunoda finished in P5, Alexander Albon finished in P6, while the Ferraris have to settle for the fourth row of the grid, in the order of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton. Pierre Gasly was the better Alpine in P9, while Carlos Sainz finished tenth at his debut event with Williams. 

Liam Lawson’s name did not drop in the brief conversation with the media, including GPblog, despite his shocking Q1 exit. But in his mind, Tsunoda must have felt he’d proven a point to Red Bull Racing, who regarded Lawson as the better fit to step up to the main team alonside Verstappen for the 2025 season.

The test days in Bahrain were fine, the opening day in Melbourne was excellent and so too was the case during qualifying, Racing Bulls’ car proved fast enough to even compete at the top. “I was enjoying a lot,” says Tsunoda logically, who realises that the midfield is also going to be very close in 2025. “I knew that if I made a good, amazing lap, it could be very good.” And very good it was indeed.

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