George Russell is First Winner of F1's New Era, Mercedes Completes 1-2

George Russell won the opening race of the Formula 1 season from pole, but it was anything but a straightforward win, as the opening 20 laps saw Russell and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc using their Active Aero to trade the lead repeatedly.

Leclerc flew from his fourth-place starting spot to the lead through the first corner, utilizing Ferrari's fast start that blows away the other 10 constructors on the grid.

Russell was the first to use the new Active Aero for a pass for the race lead, and Leclerc played it back.

While Leclerc battled for the lead, his teammate Lewis Hamilton raced into third as Russell's teammate Kimi Antonelli faded from his front row starting spot to seventh on the opening lap.

Antonelli would battle back to run behind his Russell in fourth, after Hamilton made it by in the early laps.

"It was a very very tricky race," Leclerc told F1TV. "Honestly, at the start, I don't believe any of us knew what to expect with the tires, with the energy, and it's even more tricky for the overtakes to defend, you don't really know when your battery is going to cut during the straight."

"It was a fun first half of the race, and P3 was the best we could do today," Leclerc added.

While the Mercedes and Ferraris were locked in their battle, chaos continued to fall throughout the field. Following Oscar Piastri's retirement pre-race following a single car crash for the hometown star, Audi's Nico Hulkenberg was also unable to start, meaning that in the first year with 22 cars on the grid, the status quo of 20 racers was maintained.

Isack Hadjar, who had his best qualifying result on Saturday, was running in the points when the new Red Bull Ford Power Unit expired.

Following the VSC deployed for Hadjar's incident, both Mercedes pitted, and the Ferraris stayed out. It's unknown why Ferrari didn't split the strategy, calling one of their drivers to pit while the other stayed out. Instead, both Ferraris continued on, and when a second VSC came out ten laps later, the pits were closed before the Ferraris could make it in.

Cadillac was the next to see a car retire when Bottas stopped off track on lap 18. Sergio Perez would go on to complete the race, finishing 16th and four laps down on debut for the American manufacturer.

Leclerc and Hamilton pushed their first stint as long as possible, with Leclerc pitting from the lead on lap 25 and Hamilton pitting after losing the lead to Russell on lap 28.

At the end of the race, eight of the 11 manufacturers finished in the points, and only 6 cars finished on the lead lap.

Hamilton finished fourth behind his teammate and ahead of Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Verstappen rose 14 positions from his 20th place starting spot following his Q1 exit in qualifying to battle the reigning champion in the mid-points. Oliver Bearman grabbed Haas's first points of the season in seventh, ahead of Racing Bulls Arvid Lindblad. The 18-year-old scored points in his debut. Gabriel Bortoleto ran up in the points most of the race after starting 10th and finished ninth to grab Audi their first F1 points. Pierre Gasly grabbed the final point of the race for Alpine.

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Victoria Beaver is a nomadic sports writer who spends her time hopping between race tracks and hippie farms. She’s covered every corner of motorsports that will let her in from 410 Sprints to NASCAR to Supercross. Her daily driver is a 2010 Subaru that she refused to do the smallest amount of preventative maintenance on. Instead, she spends her free time and money building a 42-foot Skoolie to one day travel the country full time.