George Russell captured pole position for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday to open the 2026 Formula 1 season. <\/p>\n
It’s the eighth career pole for the Mercedes driver, and his first in Melbourne. Russell finished third at the circuit during last season’s race. <\/p>\n
It’s Mercedes’ first pole in Australia since 2019. <\/p>\n
“It’s the first step in a long season,” Russell said. <\/p>\n
Position
\nDriver
\nTeam
\nTime<\/p>\n
1
\nGeorge Russell
\nMercedes
\n1:18.518<\/p>\n
2
\nKimi Antonelli
\nMercedes
\n+0.293<\/p>\n
3
\nIsack Hadjar
\nRed Bull
\n+0.785<\/p>\n
4
\nCharles Leclerc
\nFerrari
\n+0.809<\/p>\n
5
\nOscar Piastri
\nMcLaren
\n+0.862<\/p>\n
6
\nLando Norris
\nMcLaren
\n+0.957<\/p>\n
7
\nLewis Hamilton
\nFerrari
\n+0.960<\/p>\n
8
\nLiam Lawson
\nRacing Bulls
\n+1.476<\/p>\n
9
\nArvid Lindblad
\nRacing Bulls
\n+2.729<\/p>\n
10
\nGabriel Bortoleto
\nAudi
\nNo time<\/p>\n
11
\nNico Hulkenberg
\nAudi
\nQ2<\/p>\n
12
\nOliver Bearman
\nHaas
\nQ2<\/p>\n
13
\nEsteban Ocon
\nHaas
\nQ2<\/p>\n
14
\nPierre Gasly
\nAlpine
\nQ2<\/p>\n
15
\nAlex Albon
\nWilliams
\nQ2<\/p>\n
16
\nFranco Colapinto
\nAlpine
\nQ2<\/p>\n
17
\nFernando Alonso
\nAston Martin
\nQ1<\/p>\n
18
\nSergio Perez
\nCadillac
\nQ1<\/p>\n
19
\nValtteri Bottas
\nCadillac
\nQ1<\/p>\n
20
\nMax Verstappen
\nRed Bull
\nNo time<\/p>\n
21
\nCarlos Sainz
\nWilliams
\nNo time<\/p>\n
22
\nLance Stroll
\nAston Martin
\nNo time<\/p>\n
Russell’s teammate Kimi Antonelli qualified second but is set to meet with the stewards after qualifying following an unsafe release. <\/p>\n
Lando Norris, the reigning drivers’ champion and the 2025 winner at the Albert Park Circuit, qualified sixth.<\/p>\n
Max Verstappen crashed into the barrier in Q1 causing a red flag and will start Sunday’s race from 20th. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Russell captured pole position for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday to open the 2026 Formula 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520013,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[441],"tags":[49,48,578,576,577,82],"class_list":["post-520012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}