As Verstappen crashes
George Russell took pole position for the opening race of the 2026 FIA Formula One World Championship, with team-mate Kimi Antonelli recovering from a practice crash and an incident-packed qualifying session to hand Mercedes a front-row lock out for the Australian Grand Prix. There was disappointment for Max Verstappen, however, as the Red Bull driver crashed at the start of the session and is set to start 20th.
The Dutchman headed out for his opening run midway through Q1 but as he went into the first corner on his flying lap, the rear axle of his RB22 locked under braking and the four-time champion spun off into the barriers.
The crash resulted in a red flag but when the action resumed Russell was quickly to the fore and the Mercedes driver topped the opening segment ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton and the other McLaren of defending world champion Lando Norris. Antonelli benefited from the red flag as it gave his team more time to complete repairs on the car he had comprehensively damaged in an FP3 crash and the Italian repaid the hard work with P6 behind Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar and a place in Q2.
Ruled out at the end of Q1 were Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll in P22 and Williams Carlos Sainz in P21, with Verstappen out in P20. The Cadillacs of Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Pérez went out in P19 and P18 respectively and Aston Martin’s sole runner, Fernando Alonso, was pipped to a Q2 place by Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.
Russell again led the way in Q2, with the Briton sealing top spot with an opening run time of 1:18.934. That left him more than four tenths clear of Leclerc with Antonelli continuing his recovery in P3 ahead of Piastri and Hadjar who was eking good lap times out of the Red Bull.
There was no place in Q3 for Nico Hülkenberg, however. The Audi driver was denied a run in the top-10 shootout by team-mate Gabriel Bortoleto, but the Brazilian would also sit out the final session as he stopped in the pit entry after his final laps of Q2 and would not take any further part.
Q3 was red-flagged early on after cooling fans were left on Antonelli’s car when he left the pit lane. The one on the left said quickly dislodged and bounced into the gravel trap at Turn 1 but the other flew off on the straight towards Turn 3 and came to rest on the track, where Lando Norris’ left-hand wheel crushed it. Antonelli is under investigation over his car being released in an unsafe condition.
Once the action got underway there was no denying Russell whose opening 1:19.084 was half a second faster than Norris and Hadjar, with Leclerc, Piastri and Hamilton more than a second off.
Antonelli made a mistake at Turn and was forced to back out of his first flyer but on his second the Italian powered to 1:18.811 to briefly sit at the top of the order. Russell was right behind him, however and he went three tenths faster with a pole-sealing lap of 1:18.518.
Hadjar took an impressive third for Red Bull but the French driver was still over seven tenths of a second off P1. His time of 1:19.903 was good enough to beat Leclerc and Piastri, with Norris and Hamilton just under a second off pole position. Racing Bulls driver Liam Lawson pipped rookie team-mate Arvid Lindblad for P8 and Bortoleto is set to start 10th despite missing out on Q3.
2026 FIA Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix – Qualifying
1 George Russell Mercedes 1:18.518 - -
2 Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:18.811 0.293
3 Isack Hadjar Red Bull/Red Bull Ford 1:19.303 0.785
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:19.327 0.809
5 Oscar Piastri McLaren/Mercedes 1:19.380 0.862
6 Lando Norris McLaren/Mercedes 1:19.475 0.957
7 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:19.478 0.960
8 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford 1:19.994 1.476
9 Arvid Lindblad Racing Bulls/Red Bull Ford 1:21.247 2.729
10 Gabriel Bortoleto Audi - - -
11 Nico Hülkenberg Audi 1:20.303 1.785
12 Oliver Bearman Haas/Ferrari 1:20.311 1.793
13 Esteban Ocon Haas/Ferrari 1:20.491 1.973
14 Pierre Gasly Alpine/Mercedes 1:20.501 1.983
15 Alexander Albon Williams/Mercedes 1:20.941 2.423
16 Franco Colapinto Alpine/Mercedes 1:21.270 2.752
17 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin/Honda 1:21.969 3.451
18 Sergio Pérez Cadillac/Ferrari 1:22.605 4.087
19 Valtteri Bottas Cadillac/Ferrari 1:23.244 4.726
20 Max Verstappen Red Bull/Red Bull Ford - - -
21 Carlos Sainz Williams/Mercedes - - -
22 Lance Stroll Aston Martin/Honda - - -
