George Russell kept his cool after a thrilling battle with Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc to win the frantic season-opening Australian Grand Prix from Mercedes team-mate Kimi Antonelli on Sunday.
The pole-sitter Briton took the checkered flag in Melbourne by 2.974 seconds, with Leclerc third and Lewis Hamilton fourth in a race that tested Formula One’s new look under competitive conditions for the first time.
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World champion Lando Norris finished fifth in a McLaren, 51 seconds behind, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen finished sixth after starting from 20th after a collision in qualifying.
But disaster struck for local hero Oscar Piastri, who crashed on the outside lap, causing serious damage to his McLaren and failing to start.
With the virtual safety car deployed repeatedly, pre-season favorite Russell kept his cool to claim his sixth grand prix win and his first since Singapore last year.
“It felt unbelievable. It was such a big battle at the beginning,” Russell said. “We knew it was going to be challenging.
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“I got off to a bad start and had some really tough battles with Charles early on. It’s great to get across the finish line.”
Under the new regulations, half of every power unit is now a battery, which the driver must charge when braking or lifting off the accelerator to avoid running out of charge.
The challenge of Melbourne’s 58-lap circuit at Albert Park is that it has long straights that drain the battery and relatively few corners that require braking and recharging.
Five cars failed to finish the race while dealing with the changes, including Piastri, Audi’s Nico Hulkenberg, Red Bull’s Isaac Hajjar, Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
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– strong rhythm –
“It wasn’t the best start we could have hoped for, losing a lot of positions and I have to recover,” said Italy’s Antonelli. He crashed hard on Saturday and had just made it into qualifying after making significant changes to the car.
“But overall it was a good game with a very strong pace, especially towards the end.”
In good conditions, Haas’ Ollie Bearman finished seventh in his Racing Bull, with rookie Arvid Lindblad eighth. Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten.
“It’s a very, very tricky race. None of us know what will happen,” Leclerc said.
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“It was very challenging. It looked like Mercedes were a little faster than us today.”
When the light turned green, Leclerc, who was running on medium tires, passed Russell, while Antonelli, who started second, slipped to seventh.
Hamilton also got off to a good start for Ferrari, surging into third place ahead of Hajar.
Russell immediately fought back to regain the lead on lap two, before Leclerc responded a lap later to take the lead again as they and Hamilton began to pull away.
The race ahead turned into a thrilling wheel-to-wheel battle, with the lead changing hands three times on lap eight as Russell and Leclerc battled for supremacy.
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On lap 12, the virtual safety car was deployed, Hajar’s car stopped, Russell and Antonelli pitted and returned on the hard road.
Leclerc and Hamilton stayed in the race, and when they resumed the Ferrari team was 10 seconds ahead of Russell, with Lindblad, Antonelli and Verstappen completing the top six.
When Bottas retired, the virtual safety car was deployed again and Russell was eight seconds behind when the Ferrari started again.
Leclerc pitted on lap 26 as his tires began to wear, but Hamilton stayed in the race and was overtaken by Russell before pitting.
Russell said on the radio that he thought a one-stop race was possible and he started in the lead, with Antonelli in second.
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There was no retreat for Ferrari, who were 15 seconds behind but did little to diminish Mercedes’ advantage in the second half of the race.
The season moves to China next weekend before Japan. The fourth and fifth rounds were originally scheduled to be played in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, but were threatened by the war with Iran.
MP/PST