Who got the crucial pit call right – and wrong

Lap 44 was the pivotal moment in the Australian Grand Prix. A sudden shower sparked a flurry of pit stops, and those who reacted immediately cashed in.

Lando Norris was leading when the cloudburst, which teams had long anticipated, began near the end of the lap. He and his pursuing team mate Oscar Piastri went off at turn 12, and while Norris gathered his car up quickly, Piastri skidded onto a patch of sodden, grip-less grass.

Norris didn’t hesitate, peeling off immediately into the pits. Piastri did the same after carefully extricating himself from the run-off area. But Max Verstappen, who had been third, pressed on.

What the remaining drivers did had a significant bearing on the outcome of their races. George Russell pitted from fourth and put himself on course for the podium. Charles Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda stayed out, the former despite having spun, which cost both the top-six places they had held.

Alexander Albon, seventh, came in on the advice of his team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr, who sussed the conditions so well at Silverstone last year. His race engineer that day was Ricardo Adami, who now manages Lewis Hamilton’s races, but together they stayed out much too long on their slicks and Hamilton fell to the bottom of the top 10.

But while car 44 didn’t realise lap 44 was the time to pit, others behind him did, and moved ahead of the Ferrari as a result. Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Lance Stroll and Nico Hulkenberg, running 10th to 12th consecutively, all came in for intermediates and were rewarded with middle-order points finishes.

The drivers who didn’t come in on lap 44 stuck by their decision the next time around. Only on lap 46, when the rain intensified, did they head in. Could anyone have gained more by pitting on lap 45? The track was still substantially dry when the first drivers came in and some, like Albon, felt they were taking too great a risk.

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Verstappen insisted that Red Bull did not miss a chance to get him in and out of the pits before Norris caught up again. Part of the reason he felt able to risk the damp conditions for longer than Norris was that his Red Bull was on the medium rubber, rather than the hard.

“I saw them go off in front of me, kept it clean, and when I saw Oscar rejoining, I thought, ‘let’s stay out,’ because it was only those three corners. The rest was still dry. When I continued, basically, the first two sectors were fine – it was just [about whether] I could survive the final sector.

“I think that lap I did was okay. If there wasn’t much more rain coming, I thought it could work. You also have to factor in that even if they caught me on an inter, they’d have to [pit] again for slicks, if it’s not going to rain anymore. So, it was fine.

“I thought, ‘Yeah, we’ll do another lap,’ but then, unfortunately, on that lap, the first sector was still okay-ish, but then in sector two, it started to rain a bit too much and we had to box.

“But in hindsight, it wouldn’t have mattered. If I’d [pitted] with Lando, it would have been P2. If I’d [pitted] the next lap, it would have been P2. And the lap that I did [pit], I was also P2. So, we tried something else, it might have worked. In a way, it didn’t work, but we didn’t lose any position, so it’s fine.”

Verstappen’s claim is backed up by his sector times from lap 45. He was only a few hundredths of a second quicker than Norris through the middle of the lap, but over three-and-a-half seconds slower in the final sector. It would have been closer than had he waited another lap, but it wasn’t a missed opportunity by Red Bull.

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2025 Australian Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2025 Australian Grand Prix gaps chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2025 Australian Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2025 Australian Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

2025 Australian Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2025 Australian Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

2025 Australian Grand Prix

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