{"id":640638,"date":"2026-03-08T09:31:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:31:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/640638\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T09:31:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:31:17","slug":"george-russell-wins-formula-1s-australian-gp-nbc-los-angeles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/640638\/","title":{"rendered":"George Russell wins Formula 1\u2019s Australian GP \u2013 NBC Los Angeles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercedes\u2019 George Russell has won a thrilling season-opening\u00a0Formula 1<\/a>\u00a0Australian Grand Prix, with teammate Kimi Antonelli following him home, after a double-stacked pit stop under the virtual safety car outmaneuvered a lightning quick start by Ferrari.<\/p>\n

It was McLaren’s 61st one-two result and first since 2024\u2019s Las Vegas Grand Prix.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew it was going to be challenging,\u201d Russell said. \u201cI go onto the grid; I saw my battery level. I have nothing in the tank, made a bad start and honestly some really tight battles with Charles (Leclerc).<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really glad to cross the finish line, but honestly, thank you so much for the whole team because it\u2019s been a long time coming to have this car beneath us, and I\u2019m yeah, going to start off in a better way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pole sitter Russell\u00a0had a sluggish start, as did Antonelli who dropped to seventh, allowing Ferrari\u2019s Leclerc \u2014 making best use of his smaller turbo for a quicker spool-up and getaway \u2014 to take the lead into turn one.<\/p>\n

The Mon\u00e9gasque then diced for the top spot with Russell, passing and repassing, before the lap 12 deployment of the virtual safety car to cover the stopped Red Bull car of Isack Hadjar saw both Mercedes cars take an opportunistic pit stop \u2014 a move that proved decisive.<\/p>\n

Russell\u2019s teammate was again relieved to fight back to second, having dropped down to seventh at the start before weaving his way back into the podium positions.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, the racing was incredible,\u201d Antonelli said. \u201cThe first few laps, the overtake is so powerful that you can give a lot of action. So, it was really good fun at the beginning and yeah, now, a bit of rest and looking forward to China.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferrari outmaneuvered<\/p>\n

Leclerc was third for his first podium for Ferrari since Mexico last year, with the 28-year-old frustrated to not go one place higher after the Scuderia erred by failing to follow Mercedes\u2019 quick thinking for a cheap pit stop under the virtual safety car, as the rest of the field drove at a slower pace.<\/p>\n

Leclerc, though, didn\u2019t think the win was possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so, but maybe I\u2019m wrong,\u201d he said. \u201cYeah, it looked like Mercedes maybe had a bit more pace than us today. But, maybe not as much as what we saw yesterday, so that\u2019s a good thing. But I don\u2019t think we could have won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton was fourth, 0.6 seconds behind at the flag, having chased him hard in the closing laps. The seven-time world champion was vocal over the radio at Ferrari\u2019s strategic blunders.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt least one of us should have come in,\u201d Hamilton said as both Mercedes\u2019 pitted.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFormula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton has been racing since he was 6 years old.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Sorry day for McLaren<\/p>\n

Earlier, the local fans in the stands were heartbroken after McLaren\u2019s Oscar Piastri crashed out on the way to the grid at the exit of turn four, likely due to an energy spike in his power unit, which ruled him out of his home race before the start.<\/p>\n

Lando Norris, the sole McLaren in the race after Piastri\u2019s crash, closed out the top-five. The reigning world champion not only clawed his way back from outside the top-10 after a slow start \u2014 but in the closing laps, fought off Red Bull\u2019s Max Verstappen, who rocketed from 20th on the grid to finish sixth after 58 laps. The Dutchman was the last racer to finish on the lead lap, albeit 54.6 seconds behind winner Russell.<\/p>\n

Oliver Bearman was seventh, up from 12th on the grid, and the sole Haas to finish in the points, with his teammate Esteban Ocon finishing 11th. Bearman finished ahead of 2026\u2019s sole rookie, Arvid Lindblad, who scored four points on his F1 debut for eighth place \u2014 but was as high as fourth during the race.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Bortoleto was ninth for German giant Audi’s first points in its first race, while Alpine\u2019s Pierre Gasly closed out the top-10, earning his first point since last year\u2019s S\u00e3o Paulo Grand Prix.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mercedes\u2019 George Russell has won a thrilling season-opening\u00a0Formula 1\u00a0Australian Grand Prix, with teammate Kimi Antonelli following him home,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":640639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,189109,2961,224,5337],"class_list":["post-640638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-formula-one","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116192862912019751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}