George Russell warns that Mercedes must raise game despite one-two at Australian Grand Prix

MELBOURNE – A jubilant George Russell said it had been “a long time coming” to have a competitive car in Formula One after winning the Australian Grand Prix on March 8, but cautioned that Mercedes still need to raise their game.

The Briton, who started the season-opener on pole, took control in Melbourne midway through the race after a wheel-to-wheel battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the early stages.

He came home ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli by nearly three seconds and had a more than 15-second gap to third-placed Leclerc to reinforce his status as the pre-season favourite.

“Honestly, thank you so much to the whole team because it’s been a long time coming to have this car beneath us and we couldn’t start off in a better way,” Russell said.

But the 28-year-old is not getting carried away, with the team still getting on top of new regulations around the engines and chassis, ahead of a new challenge next weekend in China with a sprint race.

“It just feels like another race win, to be honest. It’s Race 1 into a very long season,” he added.

“Of course I want to fight for race wins week in, week out, but we’re all here now to fight for a world championship, and that’s what we’ve been working so hard towards.

“And if we want to do that, we still need to raise our game because there were a lot of areas today that we underachieved, mainly around the race start and having the battery in the right place.”

Russell dominated qualifying and started at the front of the grid, but he was overtaken by Leclerc at Turn 1, which set off a thrilling battle between the pair with their pit-stop strategies proving decisive.

“Qualifying was a real surprise for us and we saw today that Ferrari are definitely there in the mix,” he said.

Antonelli had an even worse start than Russell, sliding to seventh from second. But the 19-year-old clawed back to secure a well-deserved podium after a testing weekend that involved a big crash in the third practice on March 7.

“The start was poor, very poor, and I just lost a lot of places and found myself having to chase,” said the Italian. “But the car was very strong and it was good fun at the end. Team did an incredible job.”

Leclerc, meanwhile, said that it was a “tricky” race.

“Honestly, at the start, none of us knew what to expect with the fights, the energy. It’s even more tricky with the overtakes,” he said.

“It was quite challenging but I was happy to get out of the battle in first. Unfortunately, that didn’t help us for the rest of the race but it was a fun first part of the race. P3 was the best we could do today.”

Leclerc’s teammate Lewis Hamilton was fourth, world champion Lando Norris came fifth in his McLaren with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a sensational sixth after starting from 20th following a crash in qualifying.

But there was disaster for home hero Oscar Piastri, who crashed on his reconnaissance lap to the grid and failed to start with major damage to his McLaren.

The Australian took responsibility for his crash, saying he was “very disappointed”.

Piastri, who qualified fifth fastest, hit the kerb at Turn 4 and spun into the concrete barriers. It left his car with the front right wheel hanging off and substantial bodywork damage, ending his hopes before the Melbourne race even began.

“It’s a shame. Things like that shouldn’t be happening anywhere, especially at my home race where it’s obviously even more disappointing,” he told reporters.

“We need to review fully what happened. I think... I got on the kerb a little bit.

“We had a couple of things going on but I think the first part I want to stress is that there is certainly a big element of it that was me.”

Haas’ Oliver Bearman finished seventh – the best placing of the minor teams – while 18-year-old rookie Arvid Lindblad, the youngest British driver in F1 history, came eighth, celebrating points in his debut race for Racing Bulls.

Ninth-placed Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10. AFP