George Russell wins Formula 1's Australian GP as Mercedes goes 1-2

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Mercedes’ George Russell won a thrilling season-opening Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix, with teammate Kimi Antonelli following him home, after a double-stacked pit stop under the virtual safety car outmaneuvered a lightning-quick start by Ferrari.

Mercedes said this was its 132nd GP victory overall and 61st 1-2 finish.

“We knew it was going to be challenging,” Russell said. “I go onto the grid; I saw my battery level. I have nothing in the tank, made a bad start and honestly some really tight battles with Charles (Leclerc).

“I was really glad to cross the finish line, but honestly, thank you so much for the whole team because it’s been a long time coming to have this car beneath us, and I’m yeah, going to start off in a better way.”

Pole sitter Russell had a sluggish start, as did Antonelli who dropped to seventh, allowing Ferrari’s Leclerc — making best use of his quicker getaway — to take the lead into turn one.

The Monégasque then diced for the top spot with Russell, passing and repassing, before the lap 12 deployment of the virtual safety car to cover the stopped Red Bull of Isack Hadjar saw both Mercedes cars take an opportunistic pit stop — a move that proved decisive.

Russell’s teammate was relieved to fight back to second, having dropped down to seventh at the start before weaving his way back into the podium positions.

“Yeah, the racing was incredible,” Antonelli said. “The first few laps, the overtake is so powerful that you can give a lot of action. So, it was really good fun at the beginning and yeah, now, a bit of rest and looking forward to China.”

Leclerc was third for his first podium for Ferrari since Mexico last year, with the 28-year-old frustrated to not go one place higher after the Scuderia erred by failing to follow Mercedes’ quick thinking for a cheap pit stop under the virtual safety car, when the rest of the field drove at a slower pace.

Leclerc, though, didn’t think the win was possible.

“I don’t think so, but maybe I’m wrong,” he said. “Yeah, it looked like Mercedes maybe had a bit more pace than us today. But, maybe not as much as what we saw yesterday, so that’s a good thing. But I don’t think we could have won.”

Leclerc's teammate Lewis Hamilton was fourth, 0.6 seconds behind at the flag, having chased him hard in the closing laps. The seven-time world champion was vocal over the radio at Ferrari’s apparent strategic blunders.

“At least one of us should have come in,” Hamilton said as both Mercedes’ pitted.

Earlier, the local fans in the stands were disappointed after McLaren’s Oscar Piastri crashed out on the way to the grid at the exit of turn four, likely due to an energy spike in his power unit, which ruled him out of his home race before the start.

Lando Norris, the sole McLaren in the race after Piastri’s crash, closed out the top five. The reigning world champion not only moved up one place from sixth on the grid but in the closing laps, fought off Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who rocketed from 20th on the grid to finish sixth. The Dutchman was the last racer to finish on the lead lap, albeit 54.6 seconds behind winner Russell.

Oliver Bearman was seventh, up from 12th on the grid, and the sole Haas to finish in the points, with his teammate Esteban Ocon finishing 11th. Bearman finished ahead of 2026’s sole rookie, Arvid Lindblad, who scored four points on his F1 debut for eighth place — but was as high as fourth during the race.

Gabriel Bortoleto was ninth for German giant Audi's first points in its first race, while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly closed out the top-10, earning his first point since last year’s São Paulo Grand Prix.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain, second right, celebrates with second placed teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli, left, of Italy and Hywel Thomas, Managing director of Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains and third placed Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, right, of Monaco after winning during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain celebrates on the podium with his trophy after winning the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, left, of Monaco passes Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc of Monaco steers his car during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain steers his car during the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Heath McKinley )

Mercedes driver George Russell of Britain crosses the finish line to win the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Heath McKinley)

Race fans react ahead of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia's car is taken from the track track after he crashed during the formation lap ahead of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia's car sits on the track after he crashed during the formation lap ahead of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, March 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Scott Barbour)

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri of Australia steers his car during the qualifying session for the Australian Formula One Grand Prix at Albert Park, in Melbourne, Australia, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (AP Photo/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake)

WASHINGTON (AP) — When acting Attorney General Todd Blanche signed off on a nearly $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate President Donald Trump's allies for alleged political prosecution, he may have pleased his boss.

But the eyebrow-raising move — the latest in his push to prove his loyalty to Trump — has agitated the same Republican lawmakers if he is nominated for the permanent job.

Blanche insists he’s not auditioning for the job of attorney general. But a succession of splashy steps the Justice Department has taken under his watch since he took the position on an acting basis last month, including an indictment of former FBI Director James Comey, has left no doubt about the impression he’s hoping to make on the president who appointed him.

The fund in particular has put Blanche at the center of a Republican firestorm at a time when he aims to establish himself as the perfect person for the job for the remainder of Trump’s term. And it sharpened concerns from Democrats and other Blanche critics that he has not shed his mantle as the president’s personal attorney.

“So the nation’s top law enforcement official is asking for a slush fund to pay people who assault cops? Utterly stupid, morally wrong — Take your pick,” Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the former majority leader, said in a statement.

A former federal prosecutor in New York, Blanche came to public prominence for his lead role on Trump's defense team, including during the Republican's hush money trial in New York. That perch afforded him, he has said, a firsthand look at what he contends was the weaponization of the criminal justice system against Trump.

He was brought into the Justice Department as deputy attorney general, the No. 2 job, then was elevated last month after Trump ousted Pam Bondi.

Now he finds himself the latest Trump-appointed attorney general to simultaneously confront expectations from subordinates to uphold institutional norms and demands from the president to do his bidding.

Trump's first attorney general, Jeff Sessions, was forced out after the 2018 midterms after infuriating the president over his recusal from an investigation into ties between Russia and the 2016 presidential campaign. Another, William Barr, resigned after their relationship fizzled over Barr's refusal to back Trump's baseless claims of massive election fraud. Bondi was removed after struggling to bring successful prosecutions against Trump's political opponents.

Two weeks after becoming acting attorney general, Blanche announced the appointment of Joseph diGenova, an 81-year-old former Justice Department prosecutor from the Reagan administration, to a special position inside the department. He'll oversee a Florida-based investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired over the last decade to undermine Trump.

“At some point, at the right time, that will be made public and the American people will see exactly what happened to this administration and President Trump over the past decade," Blanche told Fox News.

Prior government reviews of the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation, a centerpiece of the current conspiracy investigation, have failed to produce criminal charges against senior officials or evidence of criminal conduct by them. It's not clear what, if any, new information the continuing investigation has developed.

The Justice Department also last month obtained an indictment charging Comey, a Trump foe whose prosecution the president has long called for, with threatening Trump through a social media photo of seashells in the numerical arrangement of “86 47" — a case legal experts say will be challenging for prosecutors. Comey has said he wouldn't be surprised if the Justice Department pursues additional indictments.

In other moves, Blanche announced an indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that has been the target of conservative outrage, with misleading donors about its activities, and has publicly defended a Justice Department crackdown on leaks to the news media, including subpoenas to reporters.

Arguably the most audacious demonstration of loyalty to Trump came this week when the Justice Department announced the creation of a $1.776 billion fund to compensate people who feel they've been unjustly investigated and prosecuted, coupled with a guarantee of immunity from tax audits for Trump and his eldest sons.

As Republican concerns grew, Blanche held a tense meeting with GOP lawmakers Thursday. Shortly afterward, Senate Republicans abruptly left Washington without voting on a roughly $70 billion bill to fund immigration enforcement agencies.

Blanche, who defended the fund at a congressional hearing this week, has said anyone who believes they've been persecuted can apply for compensation regardless of political affiliation. But the fund has been widely understood as a boon to Trump allies investigated during the Biden administration.

“It’s pretty clear that he’s not the attorney general for the United States as much as he's the attorney general for President Trump,” said Stephen Saltzburg, a George Washington University law professor and senior Justice Department official in the 1980s. He said Blanche would get an A+ if report cards were issued for fealty to Trump.

David Laufman, a former chief of staff to the deputy attorney general in President George W. Bush's administration, said that rather than protecting the Justice Department's independence, Blanche has been a “willing and ardent accomplice for carrying out any partisan or corrupt scheme the White House may devise.”

Blanche’s supporters dismiss the suggestion he is trying to curry favor with Trump to secure the permanent job.

“What he is doing is he is seeking justice based on facts and the law,” said Jay Town, who served as a U.S. attorney in Alabama during the first Trump administration. “And I don’t think that will ever change about him, whether he is the attorney general going forward or doesn’t spend another day in the administration. He is an honorable man and anybody that knows him knows that to be true.”

Blanche also says he is not angling to keep his job or feeling pressure to placate Trump.

He has told reporters he would be honored to be nominated but, "if he chooses to nominate somebody else and asks me to go do something else, I will say, ‘Thank you very much. I love you, sir.’ I don’t have any goals or aspirations beyond that.”

In recent days, he's functioned as the fund's public face and most visible defender, a role consistent with his comfort in the spotlight. He sometimes holds multiple press conferences a week and grants interviews to a variety of news outlets, a contrast to Bondi, who largely stuck to Fox News appearances.

His defenders say his experience as a federal prosecutor has made him a more sophisticated communicator for the department than Bondi, but his statements have at times invited backlash, including his refusal to rule out that violent Jan. 6 rioters could be eligible for payouts.

Though Blanche will appoint the five commissioners tasked with processing claims, his precise role in the fund’s implementation is unclear. He told CNN it was developed through negotiations with Trump’s private lawyers, not him.

For some Democrats, that's a difference without a distinction.

“Mr. Attorney General, you are acting today like the president's personal attorney," Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, told Blanche during a combative exchange in the Senate hearing, "and that's the whole problem."

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche arrives for a closed-door meeting with Republican senators who are expected to abandon a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump's ballroom after it has failed to win enough party support, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche arrives for a closed-door meeting with Republican senators who are expected to abandon a proposal for $1 billion in security money for the White House complex and President Donald Trump's ballroom after it has failed to win enough party support, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, May 21, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)