2026 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, March 06 - 08 Sportsbook Motor Sport

[Tom]

So it begins.

Friday 6 March
Practice 1 - 01.30 - 02.30
Practice 2 - 05.00 - 06.00

Saturday 7 March
Practice 3 - 01.30 - 02.30
Qualifying - 05.00 - 06.00

Sunday 8 March
Race - 04.00



Seen some reports that Aston Martin may not take part in the race, it will probably be a few token laps, then retire the cars. Something to do with a vibration that needs a fair bit of redesign to counter.

 

[Franco Pinion]

1	George Russell	Mercedes	1:19.507	1:18.934	1:18.518
2	Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	1:20.120	1:19.435	1:18.811
3	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull Racing	1:20.023	1:19.653	1:19.303
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:20.226	1:19.357	1:19.327
5	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1:19.664	1:19.525	1:19.380
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:20.010	1:19.882	1:19.475
7	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	1:19.811	1:19.921	1:19.478
8	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	1:20.491	1:20.144	1:19.994
9	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	1:20.409	1:19.971	1:21.247
10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	1:20.495	1:20.221
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	1:21.024	1:20.303
12	Oliver Bearman	Haas F1 Team	1:21.247	1:20.311
13	Esteban Ocon	Haas F1 Team	1:20.759	1:20.491
14	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	1:21.138	1:20.501
15	Alexander Albon	Williams	1:21.051	1:20.941
16	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	1:21.200	1:21.270
17	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1:21.969
18	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	1:22.605
19	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	1:23.244

(Carlos Sainz and Lance Stroll did not take part in the session. Max Verstappen crashed out during Q1.)

George Russell took an imposing pole position as Mercedes dominated the first qualifying session of a new era of Formula 1 at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Briton led team-mate Kimi Antonelli by 0.363 seconds and was 0.785secs clear of Red Bull's Isack Hadjar in third place.

Max Verstappen crashed on his first lap to leave a degree of doubt as to the extent of Mercedes' superiority, but it was an impressive start to a new period of regulations by the former champions.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was fourth fastest, with the McLarens of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris separating him from his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Briton Arvid Lindblad, 18, made an impressive start to his F1 career but a final lap that did not live up the standards he had set until then in the weekend left him behind Racing Bulls team-mate Liam Lawson in ninth place.

Mercedes so far ahead of everyone. I'm not sure I can take a season of George and Toto!

 

[Son Of Jack]

I was expecting the worst after qualifying but that was pretty entertaining tbh. Good battle between Russell and Leclerc at the beginning.

I feel as though under previous regs, the Mercedes with the engine advantage they have would have been 20 secs ahead by the time the pit window opened. They never really pulled away anything like you'd expect before Ferrari botched it.

It's a horrible, artificial way of doing it, and it ruins qualifying quite a bit, but there's some potential there for some interesting races.

 

[Tom]

Better start to the season than I expected. Australia is usually a boring race but there was some good racing in the early stages.

They never really pulled away anything like you'd expect before Ferrari botched it.

Ferrari's strategy would improve immeasurably if it just blindly copied what the teams around them are doing.

Most races they just can't resist trying to be clever and zigging when everyone else zags, and 9/10 times it just leads to them looking like clowns.