George Russell starts on pole in Melbourne on Sunday as drivers battle for the opening race win of the season, and you can follow it all live on ESPN.
In a perhaps ominous sign of things to come, Mercedes have locked out the front row with George Russell sitting on pole after a dominant qualifying session.
After plenty of discourse about 2026’s new hybrid cars, how will the race pan out?
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Reigning champion Lando Norris — who qualified sixth — did not hold back on his disappointment at F1’s new hybrid cars saying after Saturday’s qualifying session that “we’ve come from the best cars ever made in Formula 1 and the nicest to drive to probably the worst.”
Meanwhile, Max Verstappen starts from 20th on the grid after crashing out of Q1. Despite Verstappen’s crash, he actually took part in the session by leaving the pits, whereas both Lance Stroll and Carlos Sainz failed to make it on track at all, so he was 20th out of 22 on the final classification.
Charles Leclerc starts from fourth, while Lewis Hamilton was seventh, splitting McLaren duo Norris and Oscar Piastri.
