McLaren's Lando Norris wins wet and wild Australian Grand Prix. Hamilton finishes 10th

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — McLaren’s Lando Norris won a chaotic rain-affected Australian Grand Prix, his first victory at Albert Park, with the British driver just managing to stay ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen following a third safety car late in Sunday's season-opening Formula 1 race.

Lewis Hamilton had a miserable Ferrari debut. The seven-time champion finished 10th and was annoyed by constant radio messages from his pit team.

Norris started Melbourne’s first wet race since 2010 from pole position and initially came under increasing pressure from his teammate Oscar Piastri, who set a series of fastest laps until his team told him to hold position. Later, the Australian driver spun at the penultimate corner on lap 44 as the rain intensified and dropped down the order.

A late-race fightback helped Piastri recover to take ninth place — including passing Hamilton on the final lap — and two championship points.

Verstappen finished 0.895 behind Norris after starting from third on the grid, and took advantage of Piastri’s misfortune and the final safety car and tire stops. Mercedes’ George Russell closed out the top-three.

“I knew I had a good pace, but I made one mistake in turn six and he (Verstappen) got me in the DRS and the DRS around here is probably like a second or something so that allowed it to keep staying within that second,” said Norris, who scored McLaren’s 12th win in Australia to take the outright record from Ferrari.

“I know what I’m capable of, I know what I can do, but obviously it’s just round one, so we need to go and do it again next weekend and then continue from there. A long season ahead, we’ve just got to keep our head down and keep pushing.”

Williams endured a mix bag, with Alex Albon finishing fifth to secure his best result since Abu Dhabi in 2020, and new recruit Carlos Sainz – who won here last year driving for Ferrari – out at the final turn on the opening lap.

Mercedes was thrilled to get two cars in the top four, with Russell on the podium, his first since winning in Las Vegas last year. Rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who replaced Hamilton on the team, showed his class with a superb fightback drive from 16th on the grid, following his qualifying exit, to finish fourth – after his 5-second penalty for an unsafe pit stop release was successfully appealed.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll also made the best of the chaotic conditions to move up from 13th to sixth, ahead of Sauber’s Nico Hülkenberg, bringing home eight points in what has been a difficult weekend for the team with its car uncompetitive in dry conditions.

Ferrari is one of the most successful constructors at the Australian Grand Prix, with 11 wins since its first in 1987, but it will leave Melbourne disappointed with just five points after Charles Leclerc finished eighth and Hamilton 10th.

The Scuderia was seen as a potential championship challenger ahead of the season but has plenty of work to do ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix next week.

The Melbourne race had a thrilling start with Racing Bull’s Isack Hadjar out on the formation lap, and Alpine’s Jack Doohan joining Sainz in crashing out on the opening lap.

There were just 14 finishers, after Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso hit the turn eight barriers on lap 34, while Red Bull’s Liam Lawson and Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto crashed out of the race 10 laps from home in the treacherously wet conditions.

AP Formula 1: https://apnews.com/hub/formula-one

Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands reacts after his second placed finish at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain celebrates on the podium after winning the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Race winner McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain, second left, stands with second placed Max Verstappen, left, of the Netherlands, Rob Marshall, chief designer of McLaren and third placed Mercedes driver George Russell, right, of Britain on the podium following the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Race winner McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain, centre, stands with second placed Max Verstappen, left, of the Netherlands and third placed Mercedes driver George Russell, right, of Britain on the podium following the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain celebrates on the podium after winning the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain reacts after winning the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain leads Red Bull driver Max Verstappen of the Netherlands during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

Red Bull driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand spins off the circuit during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco steers his car during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

Red Bull driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand stands by his car after crashing during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli of Italy steers his car during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

McLaren driver Lando Norris, right, of Britain and Red Bull driver Liam Lawson of New Zealand complete to get out of turn two during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton of Britain steers his car during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain talks with Zak Brown, McLaren team chief, after winning the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain waves to the crowd after winning the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Heath McKinley)

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso of Spain steers his car during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain leads teammate Oscar Piastri of Australia during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

Williams driver Carlos Sainz of Spain's car is taken from the track after he crashed during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

McLaren driver Lando Norris of Britain leads the field into turn two at the start of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Team RB driver Isack Hadjar of France is assisted by a track marshal after his car hit a wall on the formation lap ahead of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

The Trump administration has transferred hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador even as a federal judge issued an order temporarily barring the deportations under an 18th century wartime declaration targeting Venezuelan gang members, officials said Sunday. Flights were in the air at the time of the ruling.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday temporarily blocking the deportations, but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not and he did not include the directive in his written order.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a statement Sunday, responded to speculation about whether the administration was flouting court orders: “The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been reoved from U.S. territory.”

The acronym refers to the Tren de Aragua gang, which Trump targeted in his unusual proclamation that was released Saturday

In a court filing Sunday, the Department of Justice, which has appealed Boasberg's decision, said it would not use the Trump proclamation he blocked for further deportations if his decision is not overturned.

Trump's allies were gleeful over the results.

“Oopsie…Too late,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who agreed to house about 300 immigrants for a year at a cost of $6 million in his country’s prisons, wrote on the social media site X above an article about Boasberg’s ruling. That post was recirculated by White House communications director Steven Cheung.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who negotiated an earlier deal with Bukele to house immigrants, posted on the site: “We sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars.”

Steve Vladeck, a professor at the Georgetown University Law Center, said that Boasberg's verbal directive to turn around the planes was not technically part of his final order but that the Trump administration clearly violated the “spirit” of it.

“This just incentivizes future courts to be hyper specific in their orders and not give the government any wiggle room,” Vladeck said.

The immigrants were deported after Trump’s declaration of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which has been used only three times in U.S. history.

The law, invoked during the War of 1812 and World Wars I and II, requires a president to declare the United States is at war, giving him extraordinary powers to detain or remove foreigners who otherwise would have protections under immigration or criminal laws. It was last used to justify the detention of Japanese-American civilians during World War II.

Venezuela’s government in a statement Sunday rejected the use of Trump’s declaration of the law, characterizing it as evocative of “the darkest episodes in human history, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps.”

Tren de Aragua originated in an infamously lawless prison in the central state of Aragua and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the overwhelming majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their nation’s economy came undone during the past decade. Trump seized on the gang during his campaign to paint misleading pictures of communities that he contended were “taken over” by what were actually a handful of lawbreakers.

The Trump administration has not identified the immigrants deported, provided any evidence they are in fact members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crimes in the United States. It also sent two top members of the Salvadoran MS-13 gang to El Salvador who had been arrested in the United States.

Video released by El Salvador’s government Sunday showed men exiting airplanes onto an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down to have them bend down at the waist.

The video also showed the men being transported to prison in a large convoy of buses guarded by police and military vehicles and at least one helicopter. The men were shown kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform — knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs — and placed in cells.

The immigrants were taken to the notorious CECOT facility, the centerpiece of Bukele's push to pacify his once violence-wracked country through tough police measures and limits on basic rights

The Trump administration said the president actually signed the proclamation contending Tren de Aragua was invading the United States on Friday night but didn't announce it until Saturday afternoon. Immigration lawyers said that, late Friday, they noticed Venezuelans who otherwise couldn't be deported under immigration law being moved to Texas for deportation flights. They began to file lawsuits to halt the transfers.

“Basically any Venezuelan citizen in the US may be removed on pretext of belonging to Tren de Aragua, with no chance at defense,” Adam Isacson of the Washington Office for Latin America, a human rights group, warned on X.

The litigation that led to the hold on deportations was filed on behalf of five Venezuelans held in Texas who lawyers said were concerned they'd be falsely accused of being members of the gang. Once the act is invoked, they warned, Trump could simply declare anyone a Tren de Aragua member and remove them from the country.

Boasberg barred those Venezuelans' deportations Saturday morning when the suit was filed, but only broadened it to all people in federal custody who could be targeted by the act after his afternoon hearing. He noted that the law has never before been used outside of a congressionally declared war and that plaintiffs may successfully argue Trump exceeded his legal authority in invoking it.

The bar on deportations stands for up to 14 days and the immigrants will remain in federal custody during that time. Boasberg has scheduled a hearing Friday to hear additional arguments in the case.

He said he had to act because the immigrants whose deportations may actually violate the U.S. Constitution deserved a chance to have their pleas heard in court.

“Once they’re out of the country," Boasberg said, "there’s little I could do."

Cano reported from Caracas, Venezuela.

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, a prison guard transfers deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, tours the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, tours the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem tours the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, second right, greets officers with Sidney Aki, director of field operations for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) San Diego field office, left, as she tours the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, greets Jessica Medina and her dog Luna during a tour of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, tours the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, second left, greets officers during a tour of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, left, greets Jessica Medina and her dog Luna during a tour of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, center, listens as Sidney Aki, director of field operations for the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) San Diego field office, left, speaks during a tour of the San Ysidro Port of Entry, Sunday, March 16, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

In this photo provided by El Salvador's presidential press office, prison guards transfer deportees from the U.S., alleged to be Venezuelan gang members, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (El Salvador presidential press office via AP)

FILE - Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump speaks along the southern border with Mexico, on Aug. 22, 2024, in Sierra Vista, Ariz. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)