Mercedes driver George Russell won the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, after a dominant showing in qualifying and the race.
Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli finished in second place, followed by the two Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, in third and fourth respectively.
Russell’s dominance started in the third round of qualifying, putting in a scorching 1:18.518 lap time to put him in the top spot.
Antonelli was close behind with a 1:18.811 but outside of Mercedes, the closest driver to Russell was Red Bull Racing driver Isack Hadjar who was eight tenths behind.
Ferrari, who looked like the clear number one team during testing, qualified in fourth (Leclerc) and seventh (Hamilton).
Outside of the top four teams (Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren), Racing Bulls showed up well in qualifying, ending up eighth and ninth.
Three drivers did not end up getting a lap in qualifying though, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen crashed on his first lap of the session, Aston Martin driver Lance Stroll for had a damaged oil line and Williams driver Carlos Sainz had an Energy Recovery System (ERS) issue.
Two drivers did not start the opening race of the season, including Nico Hulkenberg and McLaren driver Oscar Piastri. Hulkenberg had an undisclosed issue with his Audi, which prevented him from starting while the hometown hero Piastri crashed the car during the reconnaissance laps.
There were many questions put forth during pre-season testing about the race start. So much so that F1’s governing body, the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile, had to change the starting procedure to accommodate the new regulations.
The first race of the season proved that it still needs some working out. Russell got away well, but Leclerc went from fourth to first after the first corner while Hamilton went from seventh to fourth and later went to third after making quick work of Hadjar.
Antonelli had a bad start moving from second to seventh and so did Liam Lawson who went from eighth to eighteenth.
Arvid Lindblad has a great start after moving up four places on the first lap while Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso made up seven places on the first lap.
The main battle of the race took place in the opening 10 laps between Russell and Leclerc. After Leclerc took the lead on the opening lap, he and Russell went back and forth for the lead until the virtual safety car came out on lap 11 due to engine issues on Hadjar’s car which forced him to retire from the race.
Russell then pitted alongside Antonelli for hard tires and that would prove to be the difference in the race.
A second virtual safety car would come out for Bottas after he had car issues and Ferrari, who were one-two at the time, stayed out due to the pit lane being closed.
Ferrari had to pit Leclerc on lap 25 and Hamilton on lap 28, not under any safety car procedure, which lost them valuable time that Mercedes gained and they were not able to get back to the front of the field.
Ferrari would still end up with Leclerc in third and Hamilton in fourth, but things could have been different if they had pitted during the original virtual safety car.
For the rest of the race, Mercedes ran away with the win, with Russell just over three seconds ahead of Antonelli and 15 seconds ahead of Leclerc.
It was overall a very messy opening race weekend with the new regulations and many drivers, including Sainz and McLaren driver Lando Norris, have come out and stated how dangerous the new regulations could be.
Mercedes has the edge right now, but if Ferrari gets their upgrades right, it could make the championship battle interesting.