Russell secures pole in emphatic fashion ahead of the Australian Grand Prix
- Charlotte Mui
- Mar 7
- 5 min read
Written by Charlotte Mui
George Russell took the first pole of the 2026 Formula One season. He will start ahead of Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar for tomorrow's Australian Grand Prix.
Russell put himself in prime position to secure the opening victory of the season and begin his long-awaited championship campaign, as he secured the first pole position of the year.
Qualifying 1
The first competitive session of the season got underway at 5:00 BST. Anticipation was high to finally see how this new generation of cars would perform in qualifying and to discover how the grid truly stacks up against one another.
Doubt surrounded whether Antonelli would be able to make the session after his costly crash in practice—a real shame for the young driver as many believe the Mercedes to be the quickest on the grid.
Alex Albon set the early pace in qualifying with a 1:21.802, before being quickly beaten by Ollie Bearman, who posted a 1:21.408.
Oscar Piastri then put in a 1:20.552, starting to show the pace of the front-running cars.
Surprisingly, Gabriel Bortoleto then went even faster. The Audi cars have been looking quick all weekend, particularly impressive for a new team.
Russell then set his first competitive lap, going six-tenths quicker than the young Brazilian and fastest overall. As the session progresses, it will be interesting to see the true pace of the Mercedes car after suspicions that the team had been sandbagging during testing.
The only rookie of the season, Arvid Lindblad, then went second quickest, about half a second behind Russell.
Shockingly, Max Verstappen went into the barriers on his first flying lap of the season, bringing out the red flag. It is extremely rare to see a mistake from the four-time world champion. He will start from 20th position on Sunday.
Luckily, the stoppage gave Mercedes sufficient time to repair Antonelli’s car as he prepared to join the queue for the remainder of the session.
Reigning world champion Lando Norris was the first driver back out on track when the session resumed.
Antonelli was then noted for a pit lane infringement. Nevertheless, the young Italian produced a brilliant lap after his shunt in practice, and will comfortably progress to the next phase of qualifying.
Lewis Hamilton then moved to the top of the timesheets, setting the fastest lap overall. The seven-time world champion will be hoping to start his season strongly after a difficult campaign last year.
Russell soon retook the lead, however, going a tenth and a half quicker than Piastri. It will be fascinating to see how Mercedes and McLaren stack up against one another, with both teams running what many believe to be the superior Mercedes engine.
Q1 eliminations
17. Fernando Alonso
18. Sergio Pérez
19. Valtteri Bottas
20. Max Verstappen
21. Carlos Sainz
22. Lance Stroll
Qualifying 2
Ferrari were the first team out for the second phase of qualifying. Charles Leclerc briefly went quickest before the Mercedes pair quickly occupied the top two positions.
Russell then went fastest by around seven-tenths of a second. The British driver was beginning to look increasingly likely to secure pole position.
With eight minutes remaining, Piastri moved into second place, although he was still some way off Russell’s benchmark.
Hadjar then produced a lap good enough for fourth, ahead of Norris, demonstrating the underlying pace of the Red Bull following Verstappen’s earlier crash. With seven minutes to go, Hamilton had yet to put in a representative lap, after aborting his first one.
Lindblad continued an impressive debut qualifying session, appearing on course to reach Q3.
With just a few minutes remaining, Antonelli moved back into second place, although he was still unable to get within half a second of his teammate’s time.
Hamilton recovered from his earlier mistake to move up to sixth, while Leclerc sat slightly further back in eighth. The Ferraris appeared to have lost some pace compared to Q1.
Bortoleto scraped into the final Q3 position, knocking his teammate out in the process.
Q2 eliminations
11. Nico Hülkenberg
12. Ollie Bearman
13. Esteban Ocon
14. Pierre Gasly
15. Alex Albon
16. Franco Colapinto
Qualifying 3
Ahead of Q3, it was revealed that Bortoleto had failed to cross the white line when entering the pit lane on his in-lap, meaning he would take no further part in qualifying. It was later revealed that he had a technical issue on his in-lap.
As Q3 got underway, the key question was whether anyone would be able to challenge Russell for pole. The British driver had been comfortably the fastest throughout the earlier sessions, with few drivers able to come close to his benchmark time.
Piastri set the benchmark for the pole shootout with an early lap time of 1:30.057.
Red flags were brought out for the second time when Antonelli was released from the pits under unsafe conditions, dropping a cooling component onto the track which Lando Norris subsequently ran over.
The session resumed with ten minutes remaining. Antonelli is likely to receive a penalty for the infringement, while Pierre Gasly will also be investigated for an unsafe release.
After minor repairs, Norris was able to return to the track for the remainder of the session.
Russell then, once again, went quickest overall, posting a 1:19.084. Norris slotted into second behind him, half a second adrift.
With six minutes remaining, Antonelli locked up and was forced to abort his lap. It had already been an eventful qualifying session for the young Italian, particularly when compared to the calm dominance shown by his teammate.
Moments later, however, Antonelli produced a brilliant lap to go two-tenths faster than Russell, taking provisional pole. Russell responded almost immediately, finding another three-tenths to reclaim the top spot.
Isack Hadjar then set a lap good enough for third place, quietly completing an excellent qualifying performance. It was the most competitive the second Red Bull driver has looked in quite some time.
Ultimately, no driver was able to challenge the Mercedes pair, who locked out the front row for the opening race of the season.
Sunday’s Starting Grid
George Russell
Kimi Antonelli
Isack Hadjar
Charles Leclerc
Oscar PIastri
Lando Norris
Lewis Hamilton
Liam Lawson
Arvid Lindblad
Gabriel Bortoleto
Nico Hülkenberg
Ollie Bearman
Esteban Ocon
Pierre Gasly
Alex Albon
Franco Colapinto
Fernando Alonso
Sergio Pérez
Valtteri Bottas
Max Verstappen
Carlos Sainz
Lance Stroll
Looking Ahead
As predicted, Mercedes looked dominant throughout qualifying. The key question now is whether that pace will translate into race performance.
Russell will certainly hope so as he begins what many believe could be his first genuine championship campaign. His teammate, however, will undoubtedly be eager to challenge him immediately and secure a maiden victory of his own.
It will also be interesting to see whether any teams can challenge Mercedes during the race. With Hadjar starting third, one wonders whether Verstappen, had he not crashed in Q1, might have been able to occupy that position and mount a serious challenge to Russell for victory.
Comments