By Daniel Feuerstein | March 8th, 2026 | Melbourne, AUS
The first race of the 2026 Formula One season got off to an exciting start. A lot of fantastic moments at the start, the middle, and the big celebration at the end as the Mercedes teammates of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli finished the top two on the podium, while Charles Leclerc finished third from Ferrari, as the fans celebrated from the stands when the champagne was flying around as all three drivers sprayed each other, then drank from their bottles with big smiles on their faces after their first race had been completed.
Oscar Piastri ended before he began
All 21 cars were getting ready to leave pit lane and take their warm-up lap around the track. As soon as Australian native Oscar Piastri drove onto the track, he reachedturn three and went up on the curb, then out of nowhere, he spun out of control, and slid hard into the wall, damaging his car. The right front tire broke off its axle, and the nose/front wings ripped off as well. Thankfully, Piastri was able to get out of his car and walk out unharmed. A tough way to go as the home country racer never got the chance to drive off from the starting grid.
Early battle in the first nine laps, but the finish was by Russell
George Russell won the pole position in qualifying and started well, but he had to battle Charles Leclerc inside the first 10 laps of the race. When the lights turned off to signal the start, Leclerc quickly jumped ahead from fourth position to first position, overtaking Russell. Then both drivers battled for first position until the field settled down, with Leclerc taking the lead. Russell was still in the top three, just behind Leclerc, until Lewis Hamilton went toward the front of the pack, as Russell stayed in second, then Leclerc pitted to get new tires and returned in fourth position.
Kimi Antonelli, who started the race in second position, fell backward toward sixth, but was making some strides and got back into third place. Throughout the race, George Russell was biding his time, staying just behind Hamilton, until lap 43, when he retook the lead permanently and held on all the way to the checkered flag, with his teammate Antonelli behind him in second and Leclerc in third place to reach the podium. Ferrari Teammate Lewis Hamilton finished in fourth, while McLaren’s Lando Norris finished in fifth.
“Well, it kind of was the race that we were anticipating, like, a difficult start. Potentially yo-yoing with the overtakes. I knew we had the car pace, so I probably left a bit more margin. While fighting Charles. And he was quite aggressive in some of the defensive maneuvers. But at the end of the day, I think we created a really good race for you guys. As challenging as it was, it was still fun, from within the cockpit,” said George Russell.
Verstappen started from the back and finished respectively
After a terrible crash during qualifying, Max Verstappen, after making one lap and done, started the race in 20th position. When the drivers hit the gas, he was determined to finish this race in the top ten. He started climbing the positions from 20th to 18th, then shot up quickly to reach 10th. As he kept going, Verstappen reached 6th until he had to pit for new tires and dropped down to 7th, but he did regain the 6th position and never looked back. That performance saved him points for himself and for his constructors.
“It was okay. Of course, we also have quite a bit more pace in the midfield, so I just needed to clear that clean. Which we did. I learned a lot of puzzles with the battles and how to use the battery and stuff. So that was, I think, quite a positive thing. And then at one point, I was quite by myself, just settling in. I think the two hard compounds today didn’t really work for us, so a lot of degradation and a lot of draining. And that made me then, of course, do a twist-stop. Just from the gap to the top, Mercedes and Ferrari, it’s quite a big one. It just gained way too quickly. That’s why we had to then fit again with new tires,” said Verstappen.
Other notable incidents
After a strong qualifying round, Red Bull Racing teammate Isack Hadjar raced 11 laps, and then the car broke down, and he was done for the day. Valtteri Bottas ran 18 laps until his car broke down and he was done for the day. FIA inspectors informed everyone that they were looking into the actions of Esteban Ocon, as their reasoning was that he was driving too slowly. No other reporters or updates were made available at the time of this article.
The next race will be in Shanghai, China, for the Chinese Grand Prix from Friday, March 13th, through Sunday, March 15th. You can watch all Formula One Races in the United States streaming on Apple TV.
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