A jubilant George Russell said it had been “a long time coming” to have a competitive car after winning the Australian Grand Prix, but cautioned that Mercedes still need to raise their game.
The Briton, who started the Formula 1 season opener on pole, took control in Melbourne midway through the race after a wheel-to-wheel battle with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the early stages.
He came home ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli by nearly three seconds and had a more than 15-second gap to third-placed Leclerc to reinforce his status as the pre-season favorite.
“It’s been a long time coming to have this car beneath us and we couldn’t start off in a better way,” the 28-year-old said.
But Russell is not getting carried away with the team still getting on top of new regulations around the engines and chassis and a new challenge this coming weekend in China with a sprint race.
"It just feels like another race win ... it’s race one into a very long season,” he said.
"We’re all here now to fight for a world championship and if we want to do that, we still need to raise our game because there were a lot of areas today that we underachieved.”
World champion Lando Norris finished fifth in his McLaren with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was a sensational sixth after starting from 20th following a crash in qualifying.
Oscar Piastri took responsibility for a crash on his way to the grid that ruled him out of his home grand prix, saying he was “very disappointed.”
The Australian, who qualified fifth fastest, hit a curb and spun into the concrete barriers.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
