Summary

  • Ferrari's Charles Leclerc wins his second race of season to extend championship lead to 34 points

  • Red Bull's Sergio Perez P2, George Russell of Mercedes completes podium with team-mate Lewis Hamilton P4

  • Red Bull's Max Verstappen retires from second place

  • Sebastian Vettel spins Aston Martin into wall to bring out safety car

  • Ferrari's Carlos Sainz retires on lap two after high-speed spin

  • Follow BBC Radio 5 Live commentary via tab at top of page

  • Get involved via #bbcf1

Live Reporting

Matthew Henry

  1. Marc Priestley
    Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Live

    Ferrari's Carlos Sainz is really struggling - looking like he might have a problem with his pace.

  2. Remarkably it's a clean start. Carlos Sainz is struggling in his Ferrari further back.

    Lando Norris has dropped to sixth behind Hamilton and Russell.

  3. Marc Priestley
    Former F1 mechanic on BBC Radio 5 Live

    Amazing start from Lewis Hamilton. He is in the mix at the front of this race.

  4. Lewis Hamilton is up into third! What a start. He has split the Red Bulls.

  5. Charles Leclerc leads the way into the first corner!

  6. Go! Go! Go!

  7. There are 58 laps of this remodelled Albert Park circuit, by the way.

    Ferrari's Charles Leclerc leads them around. Can he hold off the two Red Bulls at the start?

  8. The formation lap is under way. The Chain is playing on 5 Live.

    It's time...

    The grid

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  10. The sun is shining down on Melbourne as their three-year wait for an F1 race comes to an end.

    Don't forget you can listen to this on BBC Radio 5 Live. Just click the audio icon above.

  11. Harry Benjamin
    BBC F1 Commentator

    More often than not in Melbourne the pole-sitter has not led after the opening lap. In fact, the pole-sitter has only won one of the last eight Australian Grands Prix and that was Lewis Hamilton way back in 2015.

  12. Get Involved

    #bbcf1

    Gareth Hughes: I am awake! I have coffee! Australia let's go!

    Jacqui Baker-Stubbs:It’s finally race day again in Australia!!!!

    Rachel: Good morning all. Looking forward to what promises to be an exciting Australian GP!

  13. FIVE minutes to go.

    All set? Following from under the duvet?

  14. Friendly rivals to tussle again?

    Charles Leclerc and Max VerstappenGetty Images

    In Bahrain's season-opener we saw thrilling wheel-to-wheel action between Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen, the pair swapping places five times in two laps, only for the Ferrari driver to come out on top before the Dutch driver had to retire.

    A week later in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, it was Red Bull's Verstappen who won an intense race-long batter with Leclerc, completing the telling overtake with four laps to go.

    Throughout the tussle, which looks set to be for the title this year, there has been a friendly, respectful rivalry between the pair.

    Today they start alongside each other on the front row. Will we get more of the same?

  15. George Russell, who will start sixth, speaking to Sky Sports: "In Bahrain we had the third fastest car but here we are behind a McLaren. But it's race day so lets see what we can do. The car isn't the most pleasant to drive but we are trying everything to improve the car's performance, it's all about the long game."

  16. A reminder how the driver standings look going into this race...

    Driver standings

  17. The strategy conundrums

    Andrew Benson
    BBC Sport’s chief F1 writer

    The race is expected to be a one-stop strategy, unless safety cars and so on mix things up. The hard and the medium tyres are the favoured compounds - the soft has very high degradation over a long run and is likely to be eschewed by most teams, unless the structure of the race demands a final sprint.

    The hard tyre is a strong choice and can last a good 40 laps. Pit-stop time loss is about 20 seconds under racing conditions, under caution 13-14 seconds.

    Most are considered likely to start on the medium but might Red Bull go for the hard for Sergio Perez and run him long on a blocking strategy to try to get Max Verstappen to beat Charles Leclerc?

    It would leave Perez extremely vulnerable to being beaten to third place by Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz - even though the Spaniard starts ninth - but Red Bull’s priorities may be towards Verstappen.

  18. There was work being done on Max Verstappen's car in the garage less than an hour ago.

    He tells Sky it's all sorted now.

  19. A stat to warm the hearts of any Red Bull fans out there.

    In fact only one of the past eight Australian Grand Prix have been won by the driver who started the race on pole.

    The last four Australia GP winners have come from second or third on the gridGetty Images

  20. How they'll start

    1. Leclerc (Ferrari)
    2. Verstappen (Red Bull)
    3. Perez (Red Bull)
    4. Norris (McLaren)
    5. Hamilton (Mercedes)
    6. Russell (Mercedes)
    7. Ricciardo (McLaren)
    8. Ocon (Alpine)
    9. Sainz (Ferrari)
    10. Alonso (Alpine)
    11. Gasly (Alpha Tauri)
    12. Bottas (Alfa Romeo)
    13. Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri)
    14. Zhou (Alfa Romeo)
    15. Schumacher (Haas)
    16. Magnussen (Haas)
    17. Vettel (Aston Martin)
    18. Latifi (Williams)
    19. Stroll (Aston Martin)
    20. Albon (Williams)