Russell Converts Pole Position Into A Win Down Under

Before the race even started, national hearts broke. On the way to the grid, Oscar Piastri had a shocking crash which left him unable to even begin the race - which he would have started in 5th position, ahead of his current World Champion teammate, Lando Norris. Piastri puts the moment down to "a combination of bad factors". Helplessly ploughing into the wall, Piastri had to watch the race from the side-lines. Nico Hulkenberg also did not start the race.

At the front, it was George Russell who took the first win of the season, in front of his teammate Kimi Antonelli, and the newly-married Charles Leclerc.

It was Leclerc who had the best start to the race - starting in P4 and surging to P1 going into the first corner. Over the course of the laps that followed, the Briton and Monegasque battled it out. The two of them taking it in turns leading. Lewis Hamilton was not far behind. He had a great start - moving from 7th to 3rd!

After an impressive start for his first race at Red Bull, Isack Hadjar pulled to the side of the track due to an issue on Lap 11. The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was deployed, and the two Mercedes drivers, along with many others, pitted. Both of them saved around 10 seconds compared to what they would have done in normal racing circumstances. Ferrari on the other hand... well they stayed out! Hamilton was not happy on the radio, claiming that "at least one of us should have come in".

After all the troubles Aston Martin has endured this pre-season, it went from bad to worse when Fernando Alonso was called in to retire his car.

It wasn't long before we had another retirement from the race. New team Cadillac's Valtteri Bottas, stopped at the pit entry and the VSC came out once again. Both the Prancing Horses, once again, stayed out. The pit-entry closed and the Cadillac was removed from the racing path.

Leclerc was finally called into the pits which promoted Hamilton to first place. In other news, Alonso re-joined the race and after Hamilton was passed by Russell, he came into the pits for some new tyres. The question was... is Mercedes going to last on a one-stop strategy after pitting so early? 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.

A third VSC was called as debris needed to be removed from the track after it flew off Sergio Perez's Cadillac. After not knowing whether a two-stop would work, Norris was called into the pits to change his tyres, re-entering the race in 8th position.

Alonso was once again asked to come into the pits and that was the end of the running for the Spaniard. His Canadian teammate, on the other hand, was out on track building valuable data for the team before being asked to also retire.

A personal shock for me was Arvid Lindblad. I was very impressed with him for his first race in Formula One in a very wanted seat on the grid. He was battling other Brit, Oliver Bearman, for 7th place, but the Haas driver was able to keep in the lead of his slightly younger comrade. Max Verstappen pitted for another set of tyres, and came out chasing Lando Norris.

With just 10 laps to go, all eyes were on Mercedes to see if they could get the one-stop strategy to work. To pit again would lose track position, and risk losing the first win of the new racing era.

Laps were wearing thin and 'keep pushing' was being encouraged on multiple radios. Antonella closed the gap between himself at Russell, and Hamilton did the same with Leclerc. But nothing made a difference, and it was Russell who took the chequered flag before anyone else. Antonelli finished just under 3-seconds after, and Leclerc took the last remaining podium position.

Hamilton filed into fourth, followed by Norris, Verstappen, Bearman, Lindblad (who scored points on his debut!), Bortoleto and Gasly - the top 10 consisting of 8 different teams.

Let's hear what our winner had to say:

"I’m feeling incredible," said Russell. "It was a hell of a fight at the beginning. 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."

I'm not sure about you guys, but I've had a terrible start to Fantasy Formula 1! (By bad, I mean I am at the bottom of the league I joined. Twentieth out of twenty. Absolutely shocking!) Hopefully it will get better as the weeks go by.

Next week we head to China, with another early race start for us fans here in the UK. Will Mercedes show another masterclass? Will Ferrari get their strategy right? And where abouts are the McLarens and Red Bulls in comparison? Hopefully we will get more answers during the first Sprint Race Weekend in 2026!