World title favourite George Russell finishes third in season’s opening practice

George Russell started his bid to win the world championship by finishing third in practice for the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

Following a major overhaul of the sport’s regulations, Russell’s Mercedes team have been billed as the team to beat and the British driver will head into Sunday’s race in Melbourne as the bookmakers’ favourite.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri led F1’s new era at a sun-drenched Albert Park, 0.214 seconds clear of Russell’s team-mate Kimi Antonelli.

Russell finished three tenths back, a position and just one thousandth of a second clear of Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc, fastest in the first session, was fifth in the other scarlet car, while Max Verstappen and reigning world champion Lando Norris had to settle for sixth and seventh respectively.

Norris, who could manage only seven laps in the day’s opening running following a gearbox problem on his McLaren, finished a full second off the pace – a disappointing start to his title defence.

Aston Martin team principal Adrian Newey sensationally claimed on Thursday that drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll could suffer nerve damage because of a vibration problem on their car.

Alonso and Stroll finished 20th and 21st of the 22 runners, with only Cadillac’s Sergio Perez – who failed to set a competitive lap – behind them.

Mercedes are tipped to hold an advantage over rivals Red Bull, Ferrari and McLaren this year, but Piastri’s speed suggests they might not have it all their own way.

Piastri, a Melburnian, is the local favourite among a crowd that is expected to number 500,000 over the weekend. Piastri led the championship for longer than anybody last season, but finished only third behind Norris and Verstappen.

Addressing his team’s billing as pre-season favourite, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said: “Even if we started the season magnificently, I’ve never been confident enough to say that we are going to be faster, and we’re going to be on the podium at the end of the race weekend.

“That is no different to this year. I’m not going to say that because simply we don’t know.

“We’ve just got to put the work in step by step, do it calmly, and then hopefully be fast enough to fight for a podium or a win on Sunday, but it’s not a given.”

Verstappen ran through the gravel at Turn 10 in the closing stages of the session as he tried to get to grips with the demands of the new regulations. He was sixth tenths behind Piastri by the close of play.