Laurent Mekies was full of praise for Isack Hadjar after he qualified in the top three on his Red Bull debut, providing a high point on a tricky first weekend of the season for the team. 

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Although there was a sizable gap of 0.785s to polesitter George Russell, Hadjar impressed in his first Qualifying hour for the Milton Keynes-based squad, especially as his team mate Max Verstappen was knocked out in Q1 after crashing when his rear axle locked up. Starting third behind the two Mercedes cars, Hadjar lost a couple of positions in the first stint of the race – with Mekies later confirming that the Frenchman had a battery issue – before he was forced to retire on Lap 11 as smoke billowed from his RB22.

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With Verstappen securing P6 after charging from 20th on the grid, the 58-lap race at Albert Park gave Red Bull plenty to digest in the few days before the Chinese Grand Prix as they accept that they are at a disadvantage compared to Mercedes and Ferrari. Meanwhile Verstappen insisted after the race that he does not feel “concerned” about the deficit to Mercedes despite crossing the line 54.617s behind winner George Russell.

Four-time Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen will tick off one of his "bucket list" events to compete in the Nurburgring 24-Hours endurance race.

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The 28-year-old Red Bull F1 driver will get behind the wheel of a Mercedes AMG GT car at the event in May, when showroom-style cars take on the famous 15.8-mile circuit in the Eifel mountains in Germany.

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The Dutchman, who finished sixth in Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix, said: "The Nurburgring Nordschleife is a special place. There's no other track like it. The 24-hours of Nurburgring is a race that's been on my bucket list for a long time, so I'm really thrilled we can make it happen now." It is very rare for an F1 driver, especially of Verstappen's calibre, to take part in a lower-level motorsport event but he has long-enjoyed driving on motorsport simulator games and has a particular affinity with sportscar racing. Verstappen is contracted with Red Bull until 2028, but had previously been linked with the Mercedes F1 programme.  The Nurburgring 24 Hours takes place on 16-17 May, between the Miami and Canadian Grands Prix. It is widely considered Verstappen could one day compete at the Le Mans 24-Hours,

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella has revealed his discontent at a lack of engine "information" being provided by Mercedes after a huge gap between supplier and customer became apparent during Formula 1's season-opening Australian Grand Prix.  Reigning constructors' champions McLaren were well off the pace of Mercedes, who claimed a one-two as George Russell led Kimi Antonelli home for the Silver Arrows in Melbourne.

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Reigning world champion Lando Norris finished 51 seconds behind Russell in fifth, while his team-mate Oscar Piastri was unable to start the race after a bizarre crash on his way to the grid. Mercedes were expected to have an advantage as a works team manufacturing their own engine, but St"You can never deploy things to make everybody happy. But I think most important is we're trying to provide a good service."ella admitted McLaren are surprised by the extent of the advantage their supplier appears to have in terms of energy deployment with F1's all new cars for 2026 following a major regulation change.  Mercedes chief Toto Wolff warned that an engine supplier cannot "make everybody happy" when he was asked potential concern from his team's customers. "It's clear when you roll out new regulations, there's so much to learn," Wolff said.  "Whether you have a customer that's on your gearbox or suspension, and in the same way on the power units, the development slope is very steep.

George Russell took a comfortable victory in the Australian Grand Prix at the start of a new era of Formula 1 after a brief early scrap with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc.  Russell and Leclerc staged a close fight for the first 10 laps with frequent lead changes before Ferrari's decision to stay out during a virtual safety car period took them out of contention for the win. 

 

The Briton led home team-mate Kimi Antonelli while Leclerc had to be satisfied with the final podium position ahead of team-mate Lewis Hamilton. McLaren's world champion Lando Norris finished fifth, fending off a challenge in the closing laps from Red Bull's Max Verstappen, who recovered from 20th on the grid to finish sixth.

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Norris' team-mate Oscar Piastri crashed on his way to the grid of his home race, losing control over a kerb and spinning into the wall. Arvid Lindblad, 18, became the youngest Briton to race in F1 and impressed on his debut to take eighth behind countryman Oliver Bearman in the Haas.

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George Russell snatches back the top spot from Kimi Antonelli by 0.293 seconds to take pole position for the Australian Grand Prix.  Mercedes have secured a one-two for Sunday's race.  

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Isack Hadjar is third, Charles Leclerc is fourth and Oscar Piastri will start fifth. World Champion Norris ends his session in sixth and Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton is seventh. Max Verstappen crashes in Q1 and will start at back

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The full grid positions are as follows  1. George Russell (Mercedes), 2. Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes), 3. Isack Hadjar (Red Bull), 4. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), 5. Oscar Piastri (McLaren), 6. Lando Norris (McLaren) , 7. Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari), 8. Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls), 9. Arvid Lindblad (Racing Bulls), 10. Gabriel Bortoleto (Audi),  Nico Hulkenberg (Audi), 12. Oliver Bearman (Haas), 13. Esteban Ocon (Haas), 14. Pierre Gasly (Alpine), 15. Alex Albon (Williams), 16. Franco Colapinto (Alpine), 17. Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), 18. Sergio Perez (Cadillac), 19. Valtteri Bottas (Cadillac), 20. Max Verstappen (Red Bull), 21. Carlos Sainz (Williams),  22. Lance Stroll (Aston Martin). Sunday's race starts at 04:00 GMT.

The Bahrain and Saudi Arabia Grands Prix are under threat as a consequence of the US-Israel war with Iran.  The two countries are among the Gulf states targeted by retaliatory missiles launched by Iran in response to US-Israeli air strikes.

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Bahrain is set to host the fourth race of the season from 10-12 April, with Saudi Arabia's event in Jeddah a week later. Missiles have hit hotels and civilian and energy infrastructure, as well as targeting American bases in the countries. The US naval base in the Bahraini capital Manama has already been hit by Iranian missiles. It is situated in the Juffair area, one of the parts of the city where F1 personnel stay.

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The Saudi Arabian race is near an oil refinery which four years ago was the target of a missile attack by Houthi rebels in Yemen. A statement from F1 said: "Our next three races are in Australia, China and Japan not in the Middle East - those races are not for a number of weeks. Although the Bahrain Grand Prix is five weeks away, F1 has no more than two weeks before it has to make a decision as to whether the two races can go ahead because of the need to transport equipment by sea to the two countries.

Australian Grand Prix organisers say they are "really confident" the travel chaos caused by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East will not impact the opening race of the Formula 1 season this weekend.

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Close to 1,000 members of staff have been forced to rearrange flights, with an estimated 500 of them reportedly set to be flown from Europe on charter planes. It comes after the US and Israel launched an attack against Iran on Saturday, sparking retaliatory strikes across the region. F1 also said it was "closely monitoring" the situation, with upcoming races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia scheduled in April.

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Many drivers and other key personnel based in Europe have had travel plans affected by the major disruption to global air transport, with key routes through Qatar and the United Arab Emirates impacted. "The last 48 hours have required some reshuffling of flights," Auld said. "My understanding is that's all now been locked in, everyone will be here ready for the race and fans won't notice any difference." Auld told Australian broadcaster Channel Nine that three charter planes would fly an estimated 500 of the near-1,000 affected F1 staff from Europe.