Authentics Store Tickets Hospitality Experiences Previous Next Upcoming Arvid Lindblad's points on debut 2026 Australian Grand Prix: Every Driver Over The Line Please wait, loading video... Leclerc reflects on ‘crazy start' that saw him take the lead in Australia Arvid Lindblad's points on debut Race Highlights: 2026 Australian Grand Prix 2026 Australian Grand Prix: Russell crosses the line to take victory at the season opener 2026 Australian Grand Prix: P4 Leclerc snatches the lead into Turn 1 on the race start 2026 Australian Grand Prix: Piastri out of his home race after crash on his way to the grid © 2003-2026 Formula One World Championship Limited

2026 Australian Grand Prix: Every Driver Over The Line McLaren driver Lando Norris will start the Australian Grand Prix in sixth place, lining up alongside his team mate Oscar Piastri in P5. The weekend got off to a less than ideal start as he was forced to sit out of the majority of FP1 while McLaren prioritised precautionary gearbox checks on his car. The Briton then dropped to eighth place in the final hour of practice before resetting for Qualifying, where he faced deployment problems throughout. He nevertheless progressed to Q3, during which he ran over a duct cooling fan that had been left on Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes and was deposited on track – the Silver Arrows were subsequently fined for releasing the car in an unsafe condition. However, Norris was unable to avoid it on track, shattering the fan as he made contact, and the McLaren driver believed the damage impacted his running and left him unable to challenge for anything higher than P6. “I had some damage on the front wing which certainly didn't help, from that massive piece of debris that I hit,” he explained after Qualifying. Piastri, looking for a positive result at his home event, qualified in P5 just ahead of Norris after featuring in the top three for much of the session. His final effort of 1m 19.380s was around eight-tenths off George Russell's pole position lap, giving McLaren the mission of closing down the gap. “Obviously, behind the two Mercedes it's pretty close so it's not a huge surprise that we are where we are. “I think it went reasonably smoothly out there today and I think we executed mostly pretty good so I can't complain from that side, but obviously we need to find a bit of time because the sandbags well and truly got dropped out. Let's wait and see how we can try and find some performance but we can build a solid base from there. Then in FP3 we got blown out of the water.

2026 Australian Grand Prix: Every Driver Over The Line After a battle with Ferrari, Mercedes secured a 1-2 finish at the Australian Grand Prix, with George Russell leading home team mate Kimi Antonelli. George Russell claimed victory in the 2026 season-opening Australian Grand Prix, the Briton leading team mate Kimi Antonelli to secure a Mercedes 1-2 ahead of the Ferrari duo in an action-packed event that saw the Silver Arrows make a one-stop strategy work to their favour. Both Mercedes cars subsequently pitted when a Virtual Safety Car was deployed due to Red Bull's Isack Hadjar pulling off the track – while the Ferraris opted to stay out. Another VSC phase followed due to the retirement of Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas, during which Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton again remained out on track. When the Scuderia's drivers later made their stops, Russell and Antonelli returned to the front – leading to questions over how each team's strategy calls would unfold, given that Ferrari looked likely to run until the end of the race while Mercedes may potentially have to stop again. Leclerc and Hamilton were forced to settle for third and fourth, with reigning World Champion Lando Norris following in fifth for McLaren – the Briton acting as the squad's sole runner after Oscar Piastri spun off track en route to the grid before the race had started, meaning that the local favourite could not participate in his home event. Max Verstappen – also the only car in his team to take the chequered flag following Hadjar's retirement – climbed up to sixth, marking an impressive recovery for the Red Bull driver from 20th place, while Haas' Ollie Bearman took seventh and rookie Arvid Lindblad secured points on his debut, the Racing Bulls driver claiming eighth place. Gabriel Bortoleto was ninth in Audi's first race as a works outfit, with Alpine's Pierre Gasly claiming the final point on offer in 10th. The Frenchman's countryman Esteban Ocon just missed out in 11th for Haas, ahead of Williams' Alex Albon and the Racing Bulls of Liam Lawson. Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso both retired for Aston Martin before each rejoining the race at different stages, while Bottas and Hadjar each failed to make the finish after their aforementioned retirements. There were also two drivers who did not participate at all, with Piastri's incident prior to the start putting him out of the event, while Audi's Nico Hulkenberg was wheeled off the grid before the race due to a technical issue. After weeks and months of anticipation, a new era of Formula 1 was about to officially get underway with the 2026 Australian Grand Prix, the first race of a season in which a wave of new technical regulations have come into effect. While a different name topped each practice session, it was Russell who led the way during Saturday's Qualifying, the Briton securing pole position ahead of Mercedes team mate Antonelli – who bounced back after a hefty crash in third and final practice earlier in the day. But there were further dramas for Hulkenberg, who was wheeled off the grid and into the Audi garage prior to the action getting underway, leaving question marks over his participation. Hamilton had impressively climbed up to third from seventh, while rookie Lindblad was running in fifth behind the Red Bull of Hadjar. Elsewhere, Alonso caught the eye by working his way up to 10th, while off the track Audi confirmed that Hulkenberg would not be able to start and Colapinto found himself under investigation for a starting procedure infringement. Hamilton, meanwhile, was very much in the picture, the seven-time World Champion chasing just over one second back from former team mate Russell. One lap later, the fight took another turn when Russell found a way past at Turn 3 – only for Leclerc to surge ahead again at Turns 9 and 10. That drama escalated further on Lap 9 when Russell suffered a heavy lock-up into Turn 1 while trying to make another move, the Mercedes man somehow avoiding going off the track – but it allowed Hamilton to catch up further in third. And while all of this was unfolding, Antonelli had worked his way back up to fourth. With 10 exciting laps complete, the order behind that close top-four battle consisted of Hadjar, Lindblad, Norris, Ocon, Verstappen – still climbing forwards after lining up in 20th – and Gasly. Alonso had dropped backwards to 17th, while Colapinto was now in last place after being handed a stop-go penalty for that starting procedure infringement investigation. A Virtual Safety Car was deployed, leading to several drivers diving into the pit lane – and while the Mercedes pair both opted to make a stop, the Ferraris stayed out on track. “At least one of us should have come in,” Hamilton radioed in – and when the VSC period came to an end, Leclerc was leading his team mate by 1.7s, with Russell around 10 seconds back in third with Antonelli 16 seconds off Leclerc in fourth. Behind them, Lindblad was being chased down by Verstappen, both cars having yet to pit. Unfortunately for Cadillac there was bad news to come moments later, with Bottas stopping his car on the grass near the pit lane entry which triggered another Virtual Safety Car – and prompted another flurry of action in the pit lane, though Ferrari stayed out on track. The stewards were being kept busy during the race, with that incident between Perez and Lawson under investigation – before it was decided that no action was required – while a clash involving former team mates Ocon and Gasly was also being looked at. Leclerc made his pit stop on Lap 26, bringing the Ferrari driver out into fourth place on track after bolting on the hard tyres and promoting Hamilton to the race lead. While Mercedes were expected to make another stop – and Ferrari were not – Russell reported that a “one-stop is viable”, leading to questions over how the plan could play out. With the race just past its halfway point, Russell was 6.5s ahead of Antonelli, with Leclerc, Hamilton, Norris, Verstappen, Lindblad, Bearman, Bortoleto and Gasly completing the top 10. Norris had also dismissed the idea of not making another stop, the World Champion facing pressure on track from former title rival Verstappen. Another Virtual Safety Car was briefly called on Lap 34, allowing the marshals to collect some debris that had come off the Cadillac of Perez, while Norris decided to make his second pit stop before emerging back on track in P8 with the medium tyres on his McLaren. Leclerc was eight seconds behind Antonelli in third, the Ferraris having struggled to close in enough to pressure the Silver Arrows into another stop – though Hamilton seemed to be catching up with his team mate in a potential fight for the final spot on the podium. And as the final laps ticked down, Hamilton was still trying to close in further on Leclerc, the former receiving encouragement to “keep pushing” from his race engineer. As the final lap approached, Antonelli was now only three seconds behind Russell, while Hamilton continued to chase Leclerc, moving to within one second of the Monegasque. But all of this could not stop Russell, who took the chequered flag by 2.974s from Antonelli to bring home the win. Bearman, Lindblad – scoring points on his debut – Bortoleto and Gasly completed the top 10 in Melbourne, while Ocon, Albon, Lawson, Colapinto, Sainz and Perez rounded out the order. Fortunately all will soon have the chance to go again, with the Chinese Grand Prix taking place in just one week's time. We knew it was going to be challenging. I got on the grid, saw my battery level had nothing in the tank, made a bad start and then obviously some really tight battles with Charles, so I was really glad to cross the finish line. Honestly thank you so much to the whole team because it's been a long time coming to have this car beneath us and we couldn't start off in a better way." F1 will move straight on to Shanghai for the Chinese Grand Prix from March 13-15.