All the key moments from the 2026 Australian Grand Prix as Mercedes enjoy a perfect start and Oscar Piastri suffers shock pre-race exit

Formula 1 in 2026 is officially underway, and the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia certainly didn’t disappoint.

With pre-race shocks, drama at the start and overtakes galore, Melbourne’s Albert Park played host to a scintillating Grand Prix as Mercedes began the year in the perfect way.

Here are all the key moments from the 2026 Australian Grand Prix as F1’s new era began…

Mercedes’ perfect start

While the competitive picture was hard to pinpoint during the weekend’s practice sessions – with a different name topping the timesheets during each session – Mercedes looked a force to be reckoned with in Saturday’s Qualifying, with George Russell and Kimi Antonelli locking out the front row by a sizeable margin.

Anyone expecting the Silver Arrows to run away with Sunday’s race, however, would be mistaken. An impressive start from the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton saw Leclerc snatch the lead from Russell into the first corner, while Antonelli slipped backwards to P7.

A dynamic scrap ensued between Russell and Leclerc in the laps that followed, with Leclerc initially staying ahead – but the Scuderia appeared to lose out by not pitting their cars during either of the two Virtual Safety Car phases that followed, in contrast to Mercedes who brought both Russell and Antonelli in during the first.

Although this meant that the Ferrari pair slipped behind the two Silver Arrows cars when they made their own pit stops – with Antonelli having recovered from his tricky start – Mercedes could not rest easy, given that they would potentially need to make a second stop later in the race.

Impressively, though, both Russell and Antonelli made their tyres last until the chequered flag, scoring a 1-2 finish for the Brackley-based outfit to kick off their 2026 campaign in perfect fashion.

While it is clear that the team have a fight on their hands given the performance of Ferrari (more on which below), the result gives Mercedes the early momentum as the field prepare for Round 2 in China in just one week’s time.

Ferrari’s encouraging performance

During pre-season testing in Bahrain, Ferrari caught the eye of many, having achieved a solid lap count as well as recording the fastest time of the second test courtesy of Leclerc. Hamilton, meanwhile, spoke of feeling “in the best place I’ve been in for a long time”.

The Scuderia continued to look strong during the opening practice sessions of the Melbourne weekend – so there was perhaps a sense of deflation when the squad ended Qualifying some eight-tenths off the pace of Russell’s pole-setting time.

This left Leclerc and Hamilton in fourth and seventh respectively on the grid for Sunday’s race – but the pair went on to ace the start of the Grand Prix, Leclerc grabbing the lead from Russell while Hamilton was also on the tail of the battling pair.

As touched on above, the decision to keep both cars on track during the two VSC stints – and the time they subsequently lost when they later pitted – perhaps cost the team a chance of claiming the win at the Albert Park Circuit, although Leclerc suggested post-race that he did not feel they could take victory.

But it was doubtless a positive showing from Ferrari nonetheless, with Leclerc securing the final spot on the podium behind Russell and Antonelli while Hamilton had to settle for fourth, having nearly caught his team mate by the chequered flag.

Leclerc was pleased that the Scuderia “delivered” in terms of executing a strong start – and Hamilton felt particularly optimistic when speaking afterwards, the seven-time World Champion stating that there were “lots and lots of positives to take” as he admitted to feeling “really excited for the next races”.

Piastri’s shock pre-race exit

While McLaren did not appear able to match Mercedes or Ferrari during Qualifying – with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris ending up in fifth and sixth respectively – the team perhaps hoped for better on race day.

Things got off to a nightmarish start for Piastri, however, whose home event was over before it started when the Australian spun off the track on his way to the grid, having lost control of his MCL40 at the exit of Turn 4.

The incident resulted in the 24-year-old hitting the wall – and while the driver himself was fortunately okay, the damage to his car was too significant for him to be able to participate in the race.

Speaking in the media pen afterwards, Piastri said of what happened: “From what we’ve seen, I think everything kind of reacted the way it should within the rules, but essentially I had 100 kW more power than I’ve had the whole weekend, at the point that I shifted. When I shifted, it went into wheelspin, and given that I was on the kerb already, it was a combination of bad factors.”

Piastri also conceded that not taking part in his home Grand Prix hurt “a lot”, adding: “It’s a shame. Things like that shouldn’t be happening anywhere, especially at my home race. It’s obviously even more disappointing.”

On the other side of the garage, Norris came home in fifth at the chequered flag after holding off a charging Max Verstappen, with the Briton later commenting that McLaren “need to improve the car quite a lot”.

Verstappen bounces back, but Hadjar’s maiden Red Bull race ends in disappointment

Max Verstappen has proved time and again that an unfortunate Qualifying won’t hold him back in the race, and things were no different in Australia as he gained 14 positions to finish sixth (and winning Driver of the Day along the way).

He knew that Red Bull would be on the back foot compared to the other top teams, admitting that they already “need to be faster” if they want to compete for wins, but the Dutchman wasn’t expecting to qualify quite as far back as P20. A huge crash in Q1 on Saturday, which was caused by an unusual issue, prevented him from setting a representative lap time.

Bolting on the sturdiest compound tyres for the race start, he steadily progressed through the pack over the opening laps, but continuous struggles with graining forced him into a two-stop strategy and he took the chequered flag in sixth place.

While the comeback was as impressive as always, Verstappen was left acutely aware of the deficit to teams like Mercedes and Ferrari, giving the Milton Keynes outfit a clear target for the rest of the season.

They would have had a more positive race day had Isack Hadjar been able to finish, especially as the early laps suggested that he was solidly on course for a significant points haul.

After a spectacular effort in Qualifying saw him start from P3, the 21-year-old lost a couple of places before he was seen slowing and pulling onto the grass just 11 laps in, with worrying plumes of smoke from the car indicating that he would not be continuing.

How did the newcomers do?

There were mixed fortunes for the grid’s newbies, with the high point undoubtedly falling the way of Arvid Lindblad, who made his mark on his debut for Racing Bulls. As the sole rookie of the season, there were plenty of eyes on the teenager, but he rose above the pressure and proved exactly why he earned his seat.

From the first session at Albert Park, he managed to outperform his team mate Liam Lawson, with the exception of a messy Q3 that led to him starting one spot behind the Kiwi at lights out. However, he executed a much better launch and leapt up the order, momentarily holding third place on the opening lap.

Although he eventually dropped behind the frontrunners, Lindblad put up a fierce defence against the likes of his childhood idol Hamilton and showed no sign that this was his first ever Grand Prix, eventually securing four points in P8.

Audi also demonstrated great potential at the hands of Gabriel Bortoleto, who made it through to Q3 before a technical problem stopped him from taking part. He was nevertheless able to improve on his P10 start, gaining a spot from Pierre Gasly to finish in ninth place and mark a strong start for the new works outfit.

Things weren’t quite as optimistic on the other side of the garage as Nico Hulkenberg suffered an issue on his way to the grid. The team did consider attempting a pit lane start, but the problem was deemed too great and the German was ultimately unable to make lights out.

Lastly, Cadillac found themselves at the tail end of the order, with Sergio Perez taking the chequered flag as the last of the finishers in P16. Both he and Valtteri Bottas, who had to retire from the race due to a car fault, had started in the bottom six on the grid, but the Mexican driver insisted that simply finishing the race was “the best result we could have aimed for” as a brand new team.

A sign of what is to come?

The first race in a new era of regulations is always a must-watch, to see how the pecking order has fallen out and who might get a jump on the rest. That much was certainly true in 2026, but with such wide, sweeping regulation changes, this was as much learning about how racing might work as seeing who was fastest.

The extra battery power combined with the ‘Boost’ and ‘Overtake’ buttons certainly provided entertainment, not least at the front where Leclerc and Russell were able to exchange the lead multiple times. There were similar battles further down the grid too, with Lindblad running out of battery power at a crucial time in his fight with Bearman, before being able to come back at his rival on the following lap.

The start was as frantic as expected, with Ferrari seemingly having the advantage there – Leclerc took the lead from P4 on the grid, and Hamilton might have been second from P7 had he not got boxed in behind Russell.

The race saw over double the number of overtakes as last year – 120 to 45 in 2025 – which suggests we could be in for some close, hard racing this season. And there is every sign different track characteristics will shake up the pecking order once again.

Tsolov and Ugochukwu start F2 and F3 campaigns in style

Tsolov won the first F2 feature race of the season for Campos Racing, but it was not entirely straightforward for any of the front runners at Albert Park.

Martinius Stenshorne and team mate Alex Dunne – both Rodin Motorsport – were battling hard at the front in the opening stages, before the duo made contact, which sent both of them out of the race and led to a Safety Car period.

That gave Tsolov the lead, ahead of Rafael Camara (Invicta Racing) and Laurens van Hoepen (TRIDENT). Thanks to a mid-race retirement, which required a second Safety Car, those three were able to hold onto the podium spots. Alpine Academy driver Dunne was deemed at fault for the collision and was handed a post-race time penalty.

In F3, Ugo Ugochukwu claimed victory for Campos Racing in their feature race. He started second, dropped a place off the line and had to win the old-fashioned way, by overtaking the cars in front to charge to victory.

The 18-year-old was joined on the podium by Freddie Slater (TRIDENT) and Taito Kato (ART Grand Prix). Pole-sitter Théophile Nael received a penalty mid-race for a false start, and that ended his hopes of challenging for the podium.