Hundreds of Formula One team personnel are stranded in Bahrain after airspace closures triggered by Middle East conflict, but Australian GP chief Travis Auld says Melbourne's season-opener will not be affected.
Australian Grand Prix chief executive Travis Auld anticipates no impact on this weekend's Formula One season-opener at Melbourne's Albert Park from the travel issues caused by the conflict in the Middle East.
Formula One's 2026 season opens at the Australian Grand Prix with sweeping chassis and power unit changes, new overtake modes and sustainable fuel ushering in a bold but uncertain new era.
'Tomorrow's going to be a challenge, I've never driven this car in the rain.'
Max Verstappen was surprised by his Red Bull car's performance as the F1 defending champion took third place in qualifying for the season-opening race.
'This is the most exciting period of my life, so I'm really just enjoying it and I'm so excited to get in the car tomorrow.'
Lewis Hamilton will launch his bid to win the drivers' championship at a third F1 team when he makes his much-anticipated debut for Ferrari in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.
But there were no bold statements on race day as he struggled to take a point and his team mate Charles Leclerc laboured to an eighth-place finish.
Ferrari's underwhelming pace was a surprise to their rivals and to Hamilton, whose quickest lap in the final qualifying session (Q3) was nearly nine-tenths of a second slower than Norris's.
McLaren's Lando Norris swept to victory in a wet and wild Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, holding off defending champion Max Verstappen in a white-knuckle finish to a Formula One season-opener littered with crashes and safety cars.
Red Bull's Formula One World champion Max Verstappen took pole position for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday with Carlos Sainz qualifying alongside on the front row for Ferrari two weeks after undergoing surgery for appendicitis.
The Dutchman's run of nine successive wins was snapped as he broke down on lap four with a brake problem.
Ferrari's Carlos Sainz won the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday in a triumphant return two weeks after appendicitis surgery as Red Bull's World champion Max Verstappen suffered his first retirement in two years.
Verstappen struggled for grip through qualifying but it all came together in his last effort
A spectator at the Formula One Australian Grand Prix suffered a cut to his arm when struck by a piece of debris from Kevin Magnussen's car.
Formula One will have a record 24 races in the season that starts in Bahrain on Saturday.
Max Verstappen clinched his second win of the season as the Australian Grand Prix was halted with three red flags.
Two people were injured and as many Sikh men were detained when two separate brawls broke out between Khalistani activists and pro-India demonstrators in Melbourne during the so-called 'Punjab independence referendum', the police said on Monday.
A prominent Hindu temple in Brisbane was attacked by Khalistan supporters on Saturday, in the latest incident of vandalism against Hindu temples in Australia.
The incident comes following the vandalism of three Hindu temples in Australia by Khalistani supporters.
Charles Leclerc took pole position for Ferrari in crash-laden qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday, pipping Red Bull's World champion Max Verstappen on the upgraded Albert Park circuit.
Jehan Daruvala swept to a double podium finish in the Saudi Arabian round of the Formula 2 Championship, in Jeddah, on Monday.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc claimed his second win of the Formula One season with a thumping, pole-to-flag victory at the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday as Red Bull's world champion Max Verstappen suffered "deja vu" with another retirement.
The honorary consulate of India in Brisbane was forced to close down on Wednesday due to safety concerns after Khalistan supporters organised an unauthorised gathering and blocked the entry of the office, days after Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese assured India that his government will not tolerate "extreme actions."
A Hindu temple in Melbourne's Albert Park was vandalised with anti-India graffiti on Monday, days after the Shri Shiva Vishnu Temple in Carrum Downs was vandalised on January 16, Australia Today reported.
Photographs of the skywriting were widely shared online but it was unclear who was responsible for them. But the Australian Grand Prix authorities were adamant that Albert Park would welcome thousands of motor sport fans from Thursday when practice sessions and qualifying commence for lower-profile touring car series.
'We have set out our 2021 calendar and look forward to the return of F1 in March this year.'
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc claimed his second win of the Formula One season
Lewis Hamilton broke ranks with other drivers who said they were comfortable with assurances received from the governing FIA, even as other sports cancel events and competitions around the globe.
Two members of the Haas Formula One team and one from McLaren were quarantined in Melbourne on Wednesday as a precaution amid coronavirus fears ahead of Sunday's season-opening Australian Grand Prix. McLaren said one team member had self-isolated in the team hotel as a precaution for showing 'coronavirus-like symptoms'.
Formula One race in Melbourne will proceed as planned this week and there is 'no chance' fans will be excluded because of coronavirus fears
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Wednesday slashed India's GDP growth forecast for FY23 to 7 per cent from the earlier estimate of 7.2 per cent mainly on account of higher inflation and a tight monetary policy. India's economy grew 13.5 per cent year-on-year in the first quarter of 2022-23, reflecting strong growth in services, ADB said in its second supplement to Asian Development Outlook Report 2022 (ADO 2022). "However, GDP growth is revised down from ADO 2022's forecasts to 7 per cent for FY2022 (ending March 2023) and 7.2 per cent for FY2023 (ending March 2024) as price pressures are expected to adversely impact domestic consumption, and sluggish global demand and elevated oil prices will likely be a drag on net exports," ADB said.
Starting second behind pole-sitter Hamilton, Bottas got the jump on the Briton during a typically messy start at Albert Park and ended up cruising to his fourth win by some 20.80 seconds after delaying a tyre-change.
Formula One plans to start its coronavirus-ravaged season in May after cancelling this weekend's opener in Australia on Friday and postponing the next three races in Bahrain, Vietnam and China. Confusingly, while Formula One said in a statement it expected to begin the championship in Europe at the end of May, the governing FIA's statement referred to May 1. Both may prove optimistic as the virus spreads across the continent.
Hamilton's flying lap of one minute 22.188 seconds set a new record at Albert Park but was only 0.268 seconds in front of German Vettel, offering the tantalising prospect of a competitive championship after three years of domination by the Silver Arrows.
'The most important thing, I think, is really about finishing races and analysing and making sure you get as many race points as you can, of course'
Lewis Hamilton's world championship defence got off to a flying start on Sunday with a crushing victory for Mercedes in the season-opening Australian Grand Prix as Formula One rivals succumbed to a farcical rash of reliability problems.
Formula One unveiled its longest and fastest street circuit on Thursday, predicting top speeds of 322kph and wheel-to-wheel racing when Saudi Arabia hosts a race for the first time in Jeddah in December.
Australian Grand Prix was cancelled due to worries about the coronavirus outbreak, after a McLaren team member tested positive before the first practice session was scheduled to get underway at Albert Park.
Formula One could cope with up to 10 positive tests for COVID-19 when the sport starts the season in July, according to the chairman of the governing FIA's medical commission. Professor Gerard Saillant told Sky Sports television the sport would still need a 'red line', however, beyond which racing could not continue.
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