Mercedes “immensely satisfied” to begin new era on the front row
7th March 2026Mercedes has secured a front row lock-out for the season opener in Australia, as George Russell took pole by almost three tenths over 19-year-old teammate, Kimi Antonelli.
Feature image credit: Mercedes F1
Trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin, highlighted the efforts the Mercedes engineering teams Brackley and Brixworth have made to start 2026 on the front foot, stating “they can all be immensely satisfied to be starting the first race of a new era with both cars at the head of the field.”
Russell took his eighth pole position rather convincingly, with the nearest car, the Red Bull of Isack Hadjar, some eight tenths behind the polesitter.
Antonelli crashed near the end of FP3 to start Saturday morning; however, a quick repair job by the Mercedes team, aided by a red flag after Max Verstappen crashed at the first corner during Q1, allowed the Italian to take the track.
Antonelli, commenting on the session, stated: “I clearly like to make my life difficult!” before mentioning the fact that despite the front row lock-out, the team still had its struggles making the deadline, with Antonelli revealing Mercedes was “so tight on time that we weren’t even able to set the car up properly”.
George Russell, on the other hand, stayed subdued, despite the pole position for the Englishman. Emphasising the great job the team has done, however, indicating that the true pace of the Mercedes is not reflective of the result they accomplished in qualifying, “we know that the advantage we had today is not the true gap to our competitor”.
Russell looked forward to tomorrow’s race with an air of positivity surrounding his comments. ”We had good long run pace on Friday, but we need to execute well if we want to fight for victory.”
Toto Wolff was not shy to share compliments around, the Austrian congratulating, Russell, and Antonelli for their performances behind the wheel in qualifying, the mechanics at the track for repairing Antonelli’s car, the teams in Brackley and Brixworth for “[doing] such a strong job to get the W17 to Melbourne in such a strong position” as well as the race team for executing a front row lock-out.
Shovlin then went on to state that while Antonelli’s crash was not great for preparation, “he will learn from that” before praising the teenager’s qualifying performance. “He did a fine job under enormous pressure though to make it through the sessions and end up on the front row.”
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