Max Verstappen produced a determined recovery drive at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix, climbing from 20th on the grid to finish sixth at Albert Park. It was a more difficult afternoon for Isack Hadjar, who was forced to retire after 10 laps with a technical issue. At the front, Mercedes’ George Russell took victory ahead of team-mate Kimi Antonelli, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the podium.
Starting from the back of the grid, Max quickly began carving through the pack and was inside the points by lap seven after passing Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto and Haas’ Ollie Bearman. A Virtual Safety Car triggered by Hadjar’s stoppage shuffled the order, but Max stayed out and later capitalised on a second VSC to pit for Medium tyres, rejoining just behind VCARB rookie Arvid Lindblad before sweeping past to move into sixth place.
Max briefly climbed into the top five when McLaren’s Lando Norris pitted on lap 34, but tyre degradation forced the Dutchman into a second stop that dropped him back behind the Briton. Despite closing to within DRS range late in the race, Max was unable to find a way past and took sixth at the flag as Russell led home Antonelli and Leclerc after 58 laps.
02
Qualifying - Isack qualifies in P3 in Melbourne
Isack Hadjar
Position: 3, Time: 1:19.303
Max Verstappen
Position: DNF, Time: N/A
1 min
Isack qualifies 3rd in Australia!
"I'm very happy with that result. When I crossed the line on that final lap I knew it was a good one. It was the perfect start to my career with the Team."
Isack Hadjar will lead the line for Oracle Red Bull Racing in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix after the Frenchman put in a stunning debut qualifying for the team by taking P3 on the grid behind Mercedes’ pole winner George Russell and Kimi Antonelli. There was disappointment for Max Verstappen, however, with the Dutchman crashing in Q1. He is set to start from 20th on the grid.
As he went into Turn 1 at the start of his first flying lap, Max hit the brakes, and the rear axle suddenly froze. The Dutchman’s RB22 immediately spun, and he crashed into the barriers and out of the session. “The car just locked on the rear axle,” said the four-time champion.
With Isack navigating through Q1 and Q2, the new recruit put in an excellent Q3 as he claimed P5 in the opening sessions and hung it all out on his final flyer to take a brilliant P3 ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, and the Mclaren’s of Oscar PIastri and defending world champion Lando Norris.
Quotes from The Team
Isack Hadjar:"I'm very happy with that result. When I crossed the line on that final lap I knew it was a good one. It was the perfect start to my career with the Team. Going into Qualifying, it is not something that we expected so we can be really happy. We kept improving after every run, from the first lap in Q1 to that final one, the car and I got better each time. We managed to find the consistency that we didn't have yesterday and throughout I felt a strong car underneath me in both the chassis and power unit. We've put ourselves in a strong position for tomorrow and we'll see what we can do to hold off those behind us."
Max Verstappen:“The crash today was very strange, I hit the brake pedal into turn one and the whole rear axle completely locked. I am all good, so that is the main thing. I went to the medical centre and had a scan on my hands and they are all fine. I need to speak to the Team and assess the data and find out what went wrong as I have never experienced this before. Well done to Isack as he did a great job in Qualifying. Tomorrow, I will be starting at the back and trying to make my way forwards. Obviously, it isn’t ideal but we can aim for P6 or P7 although I don’t yet know how easy it is to overtake cars.”
03
Free Practice - In the mix in Melbourne
Stats
First Practice Session (Max)
1:20.789, Position: 3, Laps: 27
First Practice Session (Isack)
1:21.087, Position: 4, Laps: 24
2 min
GP gives us his thoughts after Free Practice: 2026 Australian Grand Prix
Max Verstappen and Isack Hadjar took P6 and P9 at the end of day one in Melbourne as F1’s new era got underway at Albert Park.
A smooth opening practice session for the RB22 and DM01 combination saw Max trade fastest laps with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc as he made his way to P3 at the end of the hour, while Isack’s first session as an Oracle Red Bull Racing driver ended with him just behind his team-mate in P4.
The afternoon session was trickier. Early in the session, Max ground to a halt at the pit exit and then lost half the session as the issue was resolved. Once on track the Dutchman climbed to P6, 0.637s off FP2’s fastest man, Oscar Piastri. However, a late off at Turn 10 left the Dutchman with an early finish. Isack, meanwhile, had a more straightforward run to P9, a little over 0.5s off his new team-mate.
Quotes from The Team
Max Verstappen:"In FP1 we did get in a good number of laps and in FP2 we found that we ran into a few issues. We are working on getting the set up right with the car and were struggling a bit with grip and also went into the gravel. We didn't have a full day of clean running but, pace wise, we are where I expected us to be. There is still a lot of work to do and we will analyse what worked and what we can improve on overnight and that is the reality at the moment."
Isack Hadjar:"For our first session of the season everything went well. The reliability of the power unit was good and it was solid throughout the day. We faced a little more issues in FP2 where we struggled with the deployment, which made putting in consistent laps quite tricky. It's never going to go smooth on day one, so we're going to look into it and work it out ahead of tomorrow."
