6 Winners and 5 Losers from the Australian Grand Prix – who started the season in style?
Lawrence Barretto picks out his winners and losers from the opening Grand Prix of the 2026 Formula 1 season.
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Mercedes lived up to their billing as pre-season favourites with a dominant performance in the season-opening Grand Prix as George Russell led home team mate Kimi Antonelli at Albert Park. But as the Silver Arrows popped the champagne, a few of their rivals couldn't wait to move on and forget the last few days down under...
Winners: Mercedes
Russell has cut a relaxed and confident figure since he realised just how good the 2026-spec Mercedes was in the first few laps of pre-season testing - and he delivered on expectation in a fine way with some scintillating pace at Albert Park.
His lap for pole was unreal, the Briton ending up around 0.8s clear of the next non-Mercedes car – and while he battled Charles Leclerc for the lead in the first 10 laps, he was able to stretch away thereafter to secure his sixth career Grand Prix win.
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