Formula 1 News: George Russell wins 2026 Australian GP

Polesitter George Russell (pictured) drove his #63 Mercedes to victory in the 2026 Australian GP Formula 1 race at Albert Park – the first race in the new 50% electric Formula 1 era.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

Overtaking maneuvers throughout the front, middle, and back of the field turned the first 10 laps of the race into a true showpiece. However, after the race settled down and the drivers learned how to use their electric power defensively, passing became less numerous.

Russell had an early battle with the two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, but gapped them when he chose to pit under an early  Virtual Safety Car, whereas the Ferraris stopped under green flag conditions.

Russell was much faster than everyone in qualifying, and it appeared he was just playing with the Ferraris in the race to hide his true pace. Once back in the lead, Russell only had to nurse his hard tires to the end for his 6th career F1 win.

“It was a hell of a fight at the beginning! I made a bad start, and some really tight battles with Charles at the start – just really glad to cross the finish line,” said Russell.

Kimi Antonelli in the #12 Mercedes, finished where he started in 2nd, 2.974s behind his Mercedes teammate.

“Was not the best start we could have wished for, lost a lot of places and I had to recover,” said Lelcerc. “But overall was a good race, the pace was really strong especially at the end.

“It was really good fun at the beginning!”

Charles Leclerc brought his #16 Ferrari home in 3rd, 15.519s behind Russell.

Lewis Hamilton was 4th in the #44 Ferrari, 16.144s behind the Mercedes of Russell.

After starting 20th because of a crash in qualifying, four-time World Champion Max Verstappen in the #3 Red Bull-Ford ran down the #1 McLaren of Lando Norris but could not find a way past and settled for 6th behind Norris.

Norris and Verstappen were a massive 51.7s and 54.6s, respectively, behind Russell at the finish. The only real consolation for Verstappen is that he had the fastest lap of the race and was voted Driver of the Day.

Oliver Bearman headed up the midfield, ahead of rookie Arvind Lindblad, Gabriel Bortoleto and Pierre Gasly.

Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon, Liam Lawson, Franco Colapinto, Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez rounded out those still running at the finish.

Local hero Oscar Piastri crashed out on the way to the grid at his home race, the Australian Grand Prix, meaning he failed to start at all.

Piastri had only just left the pit-lane and was driving around to his grid slot when he appeared to drop a wheel onto the curb at Turn 4, where he spun and crashed out into the wall.

Oscar Piastri has crashed and is OUT of the Australian Grand Prix before it begins 😮#F1 #AusGP pic.twitter.com/5prGby7dNC

— Formula 1 (@F1) March 8, 2026

The crash came in front of what was a record crowd at his Albert Park race. Piastri had qualified fifth and had been hoping to end the fabled curse of the race, which has never seen an Australian finish on the podium.

“Obviously very disappointing,” a despondent Piastri told the media as the race was unfolding on the screens around him in the media pen. “I don’t really have many other words than that. I’m just very sorry, obviously, for everyone that came out and wanted to support me.

“It’s clearly not the way I wanted to start the year either. So, yeah, I can only apologize.

2026 Australian GP Race Results