Russell Claims Pole For 2026 Australian GP

Mercedes’ George Russell dominated Qualifying to claim pole position for the 2026 Australian Grand Prix. 

Russell topped FP3 at the death and proceeded to dominate qualifying despite a late challenge from his teammate, Andrea Kimi Antonelli who qualified second in a Mercedes front-row lockout.

Isack Hadjar meanwhile rounded out the top three on the grid following a qualifying session which was disrupted by two red flags, whilst two drivers didn’t even participate in that session as Audi and Cadillac settled into life in F1.

 

FP3

After a 20-minute delay due to barrier repair caused by a F3 sprint race crash, Alpine’s Franco Colapinto was first out on track and set 1m 24.222 as the initial benchmark time on hard tyres.

Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton however was quickly on his heels and lowered the benchmark time to 1m 21.599 then even further to 1m 20.572 on soft tyres.

Red flags however were deployed in the 14th minute after Williams’ Carlos Sainz had been stranded at the pit entry for five minutes under a Virtual Safety Car, having stopped due to a technical issue which curtailed his running early.

Once the session resumed, Mercedes’ Andrea Kimi Antonelli set 1m 20.324 as the new benchmark, only for Charles Leclerc and Hamilton soon afterwards to trade the fastest laps, which ultimately saw Leclerc lower the fastest lap benchmark to 1m 19.827 ahead of the final runs.

Antonelli however brought the opening phase of the final runs to a halt in the 48th minute after he lost the rear of his Mercedes out of Turn 1, which sent him sliding into the outside barriers of Turn 2 and slid back across the track although he escaped unharmed.

The session resumed with four minutes left which led to a flurry of late qualifying simulations in the closing moments, during which Russell emerged fastest with 1m 19.053 ahead of Hamilton and Leclerc – who were the only pair to get within one second of his lap time.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	George Russell	Mercedes	1m 19.053
2	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.616
3	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.884
4	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 1.034
5	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	+ 1.084
6	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 1.144
7	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 1.271
8	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 1.390
9	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	+ 1.406
10	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 1.725
11	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+ 1.785
12	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 1.837
13	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 1.930
14	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	+ 2.014
15	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 2.018
16	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 2.360
17	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 2.611
18	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 3.667
19	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+ 4.461
20	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	+ 5.344
21	Carlos Sainz	Williams	No Time
22	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	No Time

 

Qualifying

Q1

Hulkenberg was first out onto the track but he aborted his flier whilst Albon set 1m 21.408 as the initial benchmark, before Russell posted 1m 19.840 to go quickest.

Verstappen meanwhile brought out the red flags with seven minutes left after his rear brakes locked up into Turn One as he begun his first flier, which sent him spinning into the barriers.

Sainz and Stroll however didn’t participate in the session so were classified 21st and 22nd respectively on the grid behind Verstappen, who lined up in 20th behind Sergio Perez and Valtteri Bottas as Cadillac completed their first F1 Qualifying session.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso qualified 17th quickest to round out the six Q1 eliminations.

 

Q2

Leclerc was straight out on track and laid 1m 20.088 as the initial benchmark time but Russell usurped the Monegasque’s effort with 1m 18.934 which went unbeaten in the remainder of the segment.

Bortoleto, Ocon, Gasly, Bearman, Albon and Colapinto meanwhile found themselves at risk of elimination once everyone set a lap time.

As the checkered flag fell, Bortoleto snuck through to Q3 at the expense of his Audi teammate, Hulkenberg who qualified 11th ahead of Bearman who improved to 12th on the grid ahead of Ocon, Gasly, Albon and Colapinto.

 

Q3

Piastri was the first top-ten runner to head out on track and laid an unrepresentative 1m 30.057 prior to a red flag with nine minutes and 47 seconds left, after a cooling fan fell off Antonelli’s car and was struck by Norris which dispersed shards of debris across the track.

Bortoleto meanwhile was ruled out of the final segment of qualifying due to a technical issue which meant that he would line up 10th on the grid.

Once the session resumed, Russell set 1m 19.084 as the benchmark provisional pole time ahead of; Norris, Hadjar, Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton, whilst Antonelli, Lindblad and Lawson didn’t head straight back out on track upon resumption.

Antonelli eventually set 1m 18.811 to usurp Russell but the Brit responded with 1m 18.518 to claim pole for the season-opener as Mercedes locked out the front row with Antonelli in second.

Hadjar qualified third for his first race start as a Red Bull driver following his promotion from Racing Bulls, ahead of; Leclerc, Piastri, Norris, Hamilton, Lawson and Lindblad.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	George Russell	Mercedes	1m 18.518
2	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 0.293
3	Isack Hadjar	Red Bull	+ 0,785
4	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.809
5	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	+ 0.862
6	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.957
7	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.960
8	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 1.476
9	Arvid Lindblad	Racing Bulls	+ 2.729
10	Gabriel Bortoleto	Audi	No Time
11	Nico Hulkenberg	Audi	1m 20.303
12	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 0.008
13	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 0.188
14	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 0.198
15	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.638
16	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 0.967
17	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	1m 21.969
18	Sergio Perez	Cadillac	+ 0.635
19	Valtteri Bottas	Cadillac	+ 1.275
20	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	No Time
21	Carlos Sainz	Williams	No Time
22	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	No Time