After an impressive start to the season at the Australian Grand Prix, George Russell and Mercedes continued to underline their championship credentials by taking pole position in Sprint Qualifying.

The Brit topped the timing sheets in FP1 earlier in the day, and he only increased his margin coming into the second session of the day, finishing three tenths clear of teammate Kimi Antonelli, while Lando Norris rounded out the top three.

Lewis Hamilton was just behind in P4, while Oscar Piastri and Charles Leclerc finished in P5 and P6, respectively.

Red Bull had a torrid time throughout Friday, with plenty of pace struggles seeing Max Verstappen finish in P8 behind the Alpine of Pierre Gasly, while the Haas of Oliver Bearman found more pace than Isack Hadjar, who could only round out the top ten.

However, Toto Wolff does believe that the German team may not be dominating proceedings for too long.

After McLaren impressed with 2024 and 2025 Constructors' Championship titles, the Austrian team boss believes that it's "just a matter of time" before the papaya team are causing problems for Mercedes.

"I have no doubt McLaren is just a formidable structure, and it won’t be long before they’re back in the fight at the front," Wolff said to Sky Sports.

Just a month before they were set to host their respective race weekends, both the Bahrain and the Saudi Arabian Grands Prix have been cancelled, GPblog understands.

Ahead of the Australian GP, the United States and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, which were followed by retaliation. Bahrain and Saudi Arabia were also targeted in Iranian strikes, along with Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

The Bahrain and Saudi Arabian GPs are now cancelled, with an announcement to follow over the next 48 hours, this website has learned.