Australian Grand Prix LIVE: Lap-by-lap updates from year’s first race

He’s taken the victory by almost four seconds over teammate Kimi Antonelli, with Charles Leclerc in third after surviving a desperate charge from Lewis Hamilton over the last lap.

That wasn’t as easy for the Silver Arrows as most thought it would be, with Leclerc leading after a dynamite start and running with Russell for the first 20-odd laps.

Regardless, Mercedes have stamped themselves as the class of the field. Teams will need to develop like crazy and race perfectly to trouble them on this form.

The Aussie left his fans absolutely gutted by binning his McLaren on the reconnaissance lap.

‘A scenario like that just shouldn’t happen, so it’s obviously very disappointing,’ he said.

‘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.

‘Cold tyres, I have used that exit kerb every lap of the weekend, but maybe I didn’t have to.’

Piastri suggested that the incident was somewhat related to battling with F1’s new regulations, but said there was no mechanical fault with his car.

‘The difficult part to take with that is everything was working normally,’ Piastri said.

‘I was backwards before I’d really even had a chance to react. It happened pretty quick.

‘But obviously crashing out of the race trying to get to the race is the situation that we were in.’

That was George Russell on the team radio as he took the win with a stellar drive in a car that appears strong in every area, not just the engine.

1. Russell

2. Antonelli

3. Leclerc

4. Hamilton

5. Norris

6. Verstappen

7. Bearman

8. Lindblad

9. Bortoleto

10. Gasly

11. Ocon

12. Albon

13. Lawson

14. Colapinto

15. Sainz

16. Perez

Hamilton told the team to pit at least one car under the first virtual safety car, and he’s been proven right.

Had they done so, it would’ve been worth about 10 seconds – not enough to win the race, but definitely enough to warrant a big discussion in the post-race post mortem.

The gap from Russell to Antonelli is pretty much frozen at 4.4 seconds, with Leclerc 15 seconds off the lead, three seconds ahead of Hamilton.

Barring some sort of disaster, that’s how the top four should finish. Very, very impressive from Mercedes. We all knew they had a towering power advantage but the car is kind to its tyres as well. That’s a daunting combination for the rest of the season.

Just when you think an Aston Martin is done for the day, it reappears.

Alonso appeared to be done when he was languishing in the garage, only to re-emerge 11 laps down before retiring for good.

Now Stroll is back on track, but 12 laps down on the field.

Adrian Newey’s team desperately need data on the car and they’re getting it – hopefully without risking the permanent nerve damage he forecast at that bombshell Thursday press conference.

Despite having the fresher rubber, Max can’t get past the McLaren. He’s within striking distance, just half a second back, but doesn’t appear to have the necessary oomph with the battery to catch him on the quickest parts of the track, or the grip to get him under braking or in the corners.

The Prancing Horse can’t mount any pressure on Russell and Antonelli. Leclerc is still 15 seconds off the lead, but Hamilton has closed up on him to be 18.8 seconds adrift of Russell. He’s made up about 2.5 seconds.

The Dutchman is back in sixth, behind Lando Norris, but he should be able to overtake before too long with his fresh rubber

No surprises there after Adrian Newey said neither car would go the distance.

Aston have confirmed that Alonso was retired ‘to conserve components’ with the team’s dire power unit problems leaving them with next to no spare parts.

1. Russell

2. Antonelli

3. Leclerc

4. Hamilton

5. Verstappen

Leclerc is now 16 seconds off the lead with the Mercedes lapping slightly quicker than the Ferraris.