A new season, new cars, new technology, new dominant drivers, and some same old disappointments. Plus plenty of action in between. Talking of action, our 2026 Australian F1 Grand Prix Result Summary will hopefully do the first Grand Prix weekend of the season justice.
This 2026 Australian Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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2026 Australian F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – QUALIFYING
AI Grek Norman has joined the F1 Race Review team to give you a one picture summary of Qualifying.
And ultimately, it’s all about Mercedes and their sandbagging as the silver cars. The other big news is Max Verstappen spinning out of qualifying as something broke as he approached turn one on his first flying lap. Back of the grid start for him. Other themes are McLarens aren’t as fast as they were, Ferrari look to threaten pace without following through, Arvid Lindblad did a stellar job in his Racing Bulls car. Aston Martin are in disarray, but somehow Fernando Alonso almost made it out of Q1.
GRID AFTER Q3 – RUS ANT HAD LEC PIA NOR HAM LAW LIN BOR — VER (20th)
Setting the scene – RACEDAY
Raceday is dry with a huge crowd looking forward to a semi-competitive Oscar Piastri. Which turns out to be a real shame. Because…..
CRASH! Oscar Piastri has binned it into the wall going from the pitlane to grid……unbelievable. Simply shocking and hard to grasp. It’s between turns four and five, a slowish section but fast enough with a close wall to destroy the front suspension, and the hopes of the home crowd at the track and those at home meant to be enjoying a rare daytime Grand Prix. There is no way they fix that car for the race.
Nico Hulkenberg may join Piastri in the non-starters as he is still in pit lane and not on his 11th grid slot. He has a seventh 7th place to go for at Albert Park this weekend.
Lap 1 – Pole sitter George Russell has a long, long wait on the grid in this new era, waiting for everyone to charge their batteries a bit, and when the red lights go out there are fishtails a plenty as the drivers try and put the power down in this new era. Charles Leclerc does it best from 4th on the grid to take the lead from George Russell at the first corner. Further around at turns 3/4 Hadjar keeps his third place, but the Racing Bulls of rookie Arvid Lindblad is up to 4th from 8th and a few corners later is up to third passing Hadjar. Lewis Hamilton is up to 5th, then 4th as he quickly passes Lindblad, and so does Hadjar. Battery power looking all important on this first lap. By the way, front row sitter Kimi Antonelli is back to 7th already, he had no battery apparently, which hurts. Other stars of the first lap are Fernando Alonso up to 10th from 16th in his Aston Martin wheelbarrow, and Max Verstappen is 16th from 20th. Liam Lawson the biggest loser going from 7th to 18th. Not a great day for those from the southern hemisphere.
ORDER – LEC RUS HAM HAD LIN NOR ANT OCO GAS ALO
Lap 2 – George Russell hunts Charles Leclerc around the second lap, and he hits the battery power at the right time and takes the lead. These two are over seconds in front of third placed Lewis Hamilton.
ORDER – RUS LEC HAM HAD LIN NOR ANT OCO GAS ALO
Lap 3 – Charles Leclerc stalks George Russell and swings by him in the ultra-fast sweepers at the back of the circuit to re-take the lead. They are averaging a lead change every lap so far. Lewis Hamilton is catching up all the time too.
Lap 5 – Kimi Antonelli is up to 5th now after dealing with Norris and Lindblad on consecutive laps. Further back and gaining is Max Verstappen in 12th. Sadly Fernando Alonso’s heroics in the Aston Martin have started to decline, as he is down to 14th now.
Lap 6 – George Russell is on the charge, figuratively and literally, and he has half a look into the corner after the long straight. Leclerc cuts him off, and predictably George Russell is on the radio to complain about it, for his team and the FIA’s attention we presume. Classic George.
Lap 8 – Russell and Leclerc jostle back and forth going into turn three, looking like Scalextric slot cars from the aerial TV camera angle. Russell brakes late and best for the lead. But Charles Leclerc isn’t done yet, and he gets pass Russell again into the ultra-fast sweepers. If all the bullsh!t with new technology means we get multiple laps of lead changing, then we guess the changes are paying for themselves.
Lap 9 – George Russell goes for a huge lunge into turn one, locks up, runs wide and almost goes off. His brief lead is gone as he mows the first corner grass and now is under pressure from Lewis Hamilton who is right on the Mercedes tail. Russell might have a nice big, fat flat spot on his tyres now too. In non front-running news, Kimi Antonelli is up to 4th and Max Verstappen has a point in 10th. Also, the two Cadillacs are ahead of Lance Stroll, amazing effort. (From the Cadillacs – never Stroll).
ORDER – LEC RUS HAM ANT HAD LIN NOR OCO GAS VER
Lap 11 – Smoke from the back of the Isack Hadjar Red Bull, his hard work goes up in smoke literally. Shame, a 3rd qualifying effort and 5th in the race is one of the better returns from a Red Bull number two driver in a long time. Virtual Safety Car is called, cars dive for the pit.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ACTIVATED
Norris, Gasly, Ocon and other lower cars all pit. Half a lap later the Mercedes pit, but the Ferraris do not. Interesting a split in strategy. Although, a split in strategy with Ferrari going one way and other cars the other usually means Ferrari are wrong. Lewis Hamilton agrees with us, if a radio message is to be believed.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ENDS
Lap 14 – The race resumes, with now strategy added to the exciting racing thanks to Ferrari’s refusal to pit.
ORDER – LEC HAM RUS LIN ANT VER BEA BOR NOR OCO – Notable Perez 14th.
Lap 15 – Fernando Alonso retires his Aston Martin. Was quite the effort really to be running as high as 10th at one stage and to be ahead of any other car, other than his teammate.
Lap 16 – Kimi Antonelli overtakes Arvid Lindblad for 4th and is six seconds behind George Russell. Talking of seconds, radio comms from Lewis Hamilton is discussing how surprised he was to know George Russell is only ten seconds behind.
Lap 18 – Valtteri Bottas has stopped on the grass near the pit lane entry in what looks like mechanical failure. It’s apparently dangerous enough a landing spot for the Virtual Safety Car. Bottas was instructed by the team to stop immediately.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR ACTIVATED
Lindblad, Verstappen, Bearman and Bortoleto all make their first stops. Will Ferrari? Surely they do this time. Nope, the stewards close the pit lane, so even if they wanted to pit, they can’t.
VIRTUAL SAEFTY CAR ENDS
Lap 20 – Virtual Safety Car ends and Lindblad and Verstappen have a nice little scrap down the pit straight and around the 20th lap.
ORDER – LEC HAM RUS ANT NOR LIN VER BEA OCO GAS
Lap 21 – Lewis Hamilton declares over the radio that “tyres are fine, do not pit me at the same time”. Fair enough. We’ll see what happens. They’ll need to stop soon. It may not be before George Russell gets past him, Russell is only five seconds behind Hamilton and catching.
Lap 24 – The stewards launch a couple of investigations for some racing incidents. Happily they are between two sets of drivers who don’t particularly like each other – Ocon v Gasly and Perez v Lawson. We say let them fight it out on track for our amusement. Meanwhile Russell closes the gap on Hamilton to three seconds, and they lap the Cadillac of Sergio Perez, which is a fine effort. For Cadillac. It looked after early testing that they could be lapped plenty of times.
Lap 26 – Charles Leclerc pits from the lead and takes on the hard tyres he needs to get to the finish without stopping again. He rejoins in fourth behind Antonelli. Who knows about the other cars on hard tyres that pitted a long time ago. Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso has un-retired from the race, and is back on track. What a warrior he is.
Lap 28 – George Russell quickly catches, then quickly overtakes Lewis Hamilton for the lead of the Australian Grand Prix. That demotion is good enough for Ferrari to decide it’s time for a Hamilton pitstop. He rejoins 4th.
ORDER – RUS ANT LEC HAM NOR VER LIN BEA BOR GAS
Lap 32 – For fun a little further back, Max Verstappen is catching Lando Norris and priming to overtake. Meanwhile lead F1 commentator David Croft just chalked up his tenth dig about UK viewers having to get up early. At the front George Russell is six seconds in front of Kimi Antonelli, who is almost eight seconds in front of Charles Leclerc in third. But they may have to make another stop.
Lap 34 – Virtual Safety Car activated due to debris on the track, the parts flying off the Cadillac along the fast sweepers. It doesn’t last long and the race resumes. Sergio Perez is doing well to continue plugging away. He is third last but crucially ahead of the Aston Martins. He’s 33 seconds behind Sainz in 15th, but a huge 44 seconds in front of Lance Stroll behind.
Lap 35 – Lando Norris pits for new tyres just Max Verstappen looks like he will get past. Convenient for both.
Lap 38 – The Aston Martin drivers are put out of their misery and the cars are retired.
Lap 39 – Lando Norris breezes past the Haas of Oliver Bearman for 7th, and a lap later gets past Lindblad for sixth. He is flying on those new tyres.
ORDER – RUS ANT LEC HAM VER NOR LIN BEA GAS BOR
Lap 41 – Great battle for 7th between Oliver Bearman and Arvid Lindblad, which ends up in Bearman’s favour. More position swapping news, Bortoleto passes Pierre Gasly for 9th.
Lap 42 – Max Verstappen pits for new tyres to give himself some fun until the end of the race. He rejoins behind Lando Norris in 6th, just under four seconds behind. Meanwhile this duo is over 30 seconds behind fourth placed Hamilton. So a pecking order is being established for 2026 here.
ORDER – RUS ANT LEC HAM NOR VER BEA LIN BOR GAS
Lap 46 – Overheard radio comms for George Russell on the TV broadcast announces the George Russell is going to the end without stopping. Good times, can the Ferrari take advantage with newer tyres?
Lap 50 – Max Verstappen is on Lando Norris’ tail but is struggling to get past. They are racing for 5th place. At the front Mercedes are comfortable in front with George Russell six seconds in front of his teammate, who is ten seconds in front of Charles Leclerc. Mercedes are cruising towards this win now.
Lap 54 – Lando Norris and Max Verstappen using all their skills and new technology to keep racing, with Norris doing a good job under pressure.
FINAL LAP – A quiet end to the race sees the Mercedes duo cruise to a 1-2 that we had to get used to when the rules changed two times ago. Behind them Ferrari are putting their hand up to be next best, and thankfully for the fans Lewis Hamilton spends the last lap trying to catch and pass Charles Leclerc, and just falls short. Lando Norris takes fifth and Max Verstappen takes Fastest Lap. Notable points for Oliver Bearman and Audi’s first with Gabriel Bortoleto. Notable finish for Sergio Perez and Cadillac.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – RUS ANT LEC HAM NOR VER BEA LIN BOR GAS
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – GEORGE RUSSELL
Took pole with plenty of daylight to non-Mercedes cars and had his team mate covered. Took the win on race day……
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
ARVID LINDBLAD – His practice efforts were good enough for a rookie. His qualifying in P8 was even better as a rookie in a Racing Bulls. And his jumping into the top three in the early laps was simply sensational. Then to continue running among the top cars as the race settled down was top shelf. Points on debut is a great reward for a great drive and weekend.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Heroics as ever from Alonso. Almost made it out of Q1 on the Saturday, and ran 10th in the early stages of the race. Retired after 15th, which may or may not be pre-planned. Then he un-retired and gave it another go for the good of the team. What a pro, he’s still got it, despite reservations over Honda. Hopefully Honda get it soon too.
KIMI ANTONELLI – Recovered from a FP3 accident, with thanks to his team for rebuilding his car qualified second, and finished second on the Sunday, despite dropping back badly at the start.
CHARLES LECLERC – Looked fast enough all weekend, but his tart and racing in the early laps gives hope this will be the year he gets the mechanical luck to go with his considerable talent.
MAX VERSTAPPEN – A rare problem in qualifying saw him ends up in the barriers and out of Q1 in qualifying. Made very steady progress during the race to end up with a bag of points at the end of the race.
LEWIS HAMILTON – An indication of how bad his 2025 Ferrari season was, is that this above average effort this weekend is close to his best work over a weekend since joining the Italian giants.
CADILLAC – Did much better than initially feared in the off season. Will be, and should be, wrapped to run as high as Perez did early, and in front of the Aston Martins, when they were in the race.
OLIVER BEARMAN – Solid enough weekend ends with points.
GABRIEL BORTOLETO – Solid enough weekend ends with first points for Audi.
THE GRAPE-EST – OSCAR PIASTRI
Anyone who beats Aston Martin to worst performance of the weekend has done very well. Or bad as it turns out. Crashing on the lap from the pits to the grid before the race is pretty bad. Sure, there’s new technology that may contribute, but still. Grape.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANCE STROLL – It’s easy to pick on Lance Stroll, so we will. Ran around in last. Where he belongs.
WILLIAMS – Thoughts from boffins they may kick on from their best of the rest in 2025 did not happen in Melbourne. A completely invisible weekend.
LIAM LAWSON – Qualified a handy 7th but lost places at the start and travelled around towards the back of the pack thereafter. Meanwhile, his first race rookie team mate impresses.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 5 / 5
New season, new technology to not understand fully, establishing pecking order with every session. Yeah, it’s an easy 5/5 at Albert Park.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 8 / 10
The new toys and combinations worked a treat early as there was multiple lead changes every lap. The start was not as chaotic as originally predicted, but more chaotic than previous seasons. And there was racing down the field and mixed up positions in the early part of the race. The action did die down a lot, as strategy kicked in a little. But safe to say, the new regulations are off to a good start.
ANY SURPRISES? – 4 / 5
Mercedes winning was no surprise given all the pre-season talk. Oscar Piastri throwing it into the wall before the race starts is quintessential surprise.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 5
Sandbags are off and Mercedes are a clear front runner. And now have a target on their back. Important too for the back-of-the-grid strugglers Cadillac getting some miles, and Aston Martin’s dire situation.
ENDING – 1 / 5
A bit dull really, but can’t have it all.
OVERALL RATING – 22 / 30
A lot going early, one of the biggest moments before the race even started. The new regs appear to have worked with some good racing. The novelty will hopefully not wear off, and starts remain a little chaotic, and Mercedes don’t get too far out in front.
2026 F1 Season Preview Gear
In case you haven’t got enough with the above. Here’s the best of 2026 in advance……
2026 F1 Season Bold Predictions
Captain Hindsight’s 2026 F1 Season Obvious Sensible Predictions
The F1 Donkey’s 2026 F1 Season Opinion and Season Predictions
2026 F1 Season Verdict by AI Grek Norman
2026 F1 Car Liveries Rated
2026 F1 Season Ratings & Season Results Predictions
PLUS
2026 Australian Grand Prix Prix-view
F! Donkey’s Australian Grand Prix Bold Predictions
AND
The Gurgler’s 2025 Stats Review& Driver of the Season
