Aborted startpublished at 04:04 Greenwich Mean Time 16 March

04:04 GMT 16 March

Isack Hadjar is safely out of the car and is walking away from the wreckage of his mangled Racing Bull. The Frenchman will not take part in this Australian Grand Prix and he looks crestfallen.

The rest of the field, meanwhile, make their way back to the grid.

Hadjar offpublished at 04:02 Greenwich Mean Time 16 March

04:02 GMT 16 March

Oliver Bearman has been joined by Red Bull's Liam Lawson in the pit lane for the start of this race.

Isack Hadjar is off already! The Racing Bulls car has crashed at Turn Two and the rear wing of the car is not in a good way.

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Getty Images

The Weather Girls' 'It's Raining Men' is blasting out of the speakers - the perfect song for the season-opener in Melbourne.

Aston Martin's Lance Stroll is the only driver starting on the full wets. The rest of the grid has gone green intermediates.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner spoke to BBC 5 Live's Rosanna Tennant about Max Verstappen: "I think it was better than we thought but we've been working on the car all weekend and we managed to make some good improvements here."

On the rain, he added: "It's another variable so you've got to react to what's going on, it's the same for everybody."

On Liam Lawson, who starts down in 18th, he said: "He was unlucky, he had a tough day yesterday but he's a tough character and he will put it behind him."

Max Verstappen, who will start in third in the Red Bull, told Sky Sports: "It's a bit slippery but it's nothing crazy, we just need to follow the weather.

"I don't mind if it's dry or wet, I just always try to do my best."

Image source, Getty Images

Lando Norris spoke on McLaren's racing rules between him and his team-mate Oscar Piastri, who starts behind him in second: "We're free to do whatever but not touch, we're both competitors and racers and we both want to win so we will see."

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne

Image source, Getty Images

This is likely to be an Australian afternoon of drama and incident. It’s been raining since early morning. The forecasts as to how long it will last are mixed, and it’s expected to improve, but the race will be wet to one degree or another.

This puts normal strategy out of the window, and turns what would likely have been a relatively comfortable McLaren win in the dry into, well, who knows what? One thing is known, though. As McLaren team principal Andrea Stella said on Saturday, Max Verstappen is “mega” in the wet and will be a “significant threat”.

A couple of things to watch out for. Pirelli has been working on its much-maligned “extreme” wet-weather tyre, and teams have seen data which suggests a decent job has been made of improving it. If that’s true, it could potentially change the dynamics of wet races - which throughout the Pirelli era have seen teams wanting to be on the intermediate tyres as much as possible, which in turn has meant greater risks are taken with grip levels in wetter conditions.

Albert Park, like all street circuits, is unforgiving in the wet, and staying on the circuit is even more important than normal. Pit loss is 18-19 seconds. There has not been a wet Australian Grand Prix since 2010, when Jenson Button won a doozy. Settle down and enjoy the spectacle.

Lewis Hamilton's father Anthony spoke to Sky Sports and said: "It feels like the first day in Formula 1 for us. It's that same butterflies and anticipation where you don't quite know what could happen or what to expect.

"The most important thing is he's really happy and we are super happy so we will see how he goes."

Image source, Getty Images

Ian Fergusson
BBC weather forecaster

Air temperature just 15.1C; track 18.5C. SW'ly wind continues to gust to 30mph, adding further complexity to challenging conditions.

Light rain recently eased. Some occasional further periods of this possible.

FIA official risk of rain 40%.

Four-time world champion Max Verstappen begins his title defence at Albert Park today. He's just been chatting to his Red Bull team on the radio to highlight the challenges that await the drivers around Turn Five. The lack of grip and windy conditions could prove a major factor at the start of this 58-lap Australian Grand Prix.

Fate has a good sense of humour, so seeing Max Verstappen and George Russell qualifying on the same row for the season-opener following their huge fallout at the end of last year is no surprise. The pair won't be battling each other from the front row but they are starting side-by-side in third for Verstappen and fourth for Russell.

The weather could play a big part in today's race, and we know world champion Verstappen is one of the very best in the wet, so Russell may have his work cut out to try and shift his Mercedes past the Dutchman's Red Bull.

F1 correspondent Andrew Benson sat down with Russell before the campaign started for an exclusive chat which you can read here.

Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto tells Sky Sports' Martin Brundle on his grid walk the back straight especially there is a lot of water. Here's Lando Norris out on track earlier - it's definitely wet.

First national anthem of the new season done. I'll give that a solid 8/10.

Image source, Reuters

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne

Image source, Getty Images

Of the six rookies on the grid, the most impressive performance came from Brazilian Gabriel Bortoleto, who out-qualified his experienced Sauber team-mate Nico Hulkenberg with 15th place, the German two spots further back.

Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli, 18, and Red Bull's Liam Lawson were both eliminated in the first part of qualifying. Antonelli, who will start 16th, said gravel on a kerb damaged the floor of his car, while Lawson went off track and is two places further back.

Isack Hadjack was the highest qualifier of the rookies in P11 and Alpine's Jack Doohan will start in 14th place.

Andrew Benson
BBC F1 correspondent in Melbourne

Image source, Getty Images

Haas driver Oliver Bearman will start from the pit lane after a difficult weekend at Albert Park.

His gearbox failed on his first lap out of the pits in qualifying, after a crash in second practice and a spin into the gravel in the final session cost him track time at the start of his first full season.

The British teenager rued his errors in practice as he digested his Melbourne experience so far.

"I made my life very difficult by performing badly, not up to standard, in the practice sessions and the issue with the gearbox pretty much sums up the weekend," Bearman told BBC Radio 5 Live on Saturday.

McLaren CEO Zak Brown spoke to BBC 5 Live's Rosanna Tennant: "I think it will be a safety car start because the visibility looked really poor. From what I can see, I think the worst of the rain is behind us but still a very damp track."

Image source, Getty Images

Racing Bulls' Yuki Tsunoda starts in P5 and he told Sky Sports: "Throughout the drivers' parade the conditions kept changing minute by minute, the wind was getting strong then weaker, this intensity is very difficult."

On the car, he added: "We have prepared, we knew it was going to be rainy conditions and even the set-up itself was not fully focused on the dry conditions, it was a bit of a hybrid set-up to be able to cope with any condition.

"I'm feeling confident and last year in Brazil it was a good qualifying and also the race as well."

On if a podium is possible, he said: "Yeah why not, it's only two places, I mean this condition really anything can happen. Last year in Brazil it was very hectic with red flags, I don't want to be the car that causes a red flag but on this kind of track you always want to stay on it. Let's see how it goes."

Image source, Getty Images

Yuki Tsunoda is starting his fifth season with Red Bull's sister team, now called Racing Bulls, after missing out on the main prize to rookie Liam Lawson - even though he out-qualified the New Zealander 6-0 during their time as team-mates last year - following Sergio Perez's departure.

The Japanese driver is contracted with the team until the end of the 2025 campaign, so he may need to put himself in the shop window for 2026. Yesterday's qualifying in Melbourne was the perfect way to show off his talents by qualifying above both of the Ferraris to line-up P5 on today's grid.

Tsunoda isn't even starting alongside a red car. Instead, he's sharing a row with the Williams of Alex Albon, another standout performer on Saturday.

Image source, Getty Images

Nigel Mansell isn't the only F1 driver to win on their Ferrari debut - Kimi Raikkonen did it in Australia in 2007, the year he went on to secure the drivers' championship.

And Fernando Alonso was a first-time winner in red in Bahrain in 2010.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Given he's starting in eighth, it's hard to imagine Lewis Hamilton marking his Ferrari debut with a win today but it has been done before by a British driver.

Nigel Mansell triumphed in the 1989 Brazilian Grand Prix in Rio from sixth on the grid in his first race with the Scuderia.

His victory, despite qualifying 1.4 seconds back from pole man Ayrton Senna, earned Mansell his Il Leone nickname with the Italian tifosi.

He won from McLaren's Alain Prost with March's Brazilian Mauricio Gugelmin earning the only podium of his F1 career in third.

Gugelmin provided some reason to cheer for the home crowd after Senna collided with Mansell's team-mate Gerhard Berger at the start. Senna eventually finished 11th, two laps down.

Image source, Getty Images

Ian Fergusson
BBC weather forecaster

Track temperature remains steady at 18.7C. With humidity currently 90.5% and extensive cloud remaining until later into the race, the drying process on-track will be largely accelerated by the cars themselves. However, gravel traps and grass will remain sodden & treacherous...