George claims his first podium with the Mercedes team at Formula One’s Australian Grand Prix.

Preparing to start his 63rd F1 race, George lined up on the Medium compound Pirelli tyres in P6 alongside his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton.

As the lights went out, George made a blistering start to sweep past the McLaren of Lando Norris to move up into P5 as he prepared to hunt down the podium positions.

An early safety car for Carlos Sainz’s beached Ferrari neutralised all track action on lap three of the 58 lap race.

On lap seven, the track was cleared, and racing resumed with George continuing chasing down his teammate ahead.

A second safety car on lap 23 allowed George to dive into the pits for his first and only pit stop, switching from the Mediums to the Hard tyres, re-emerging in P3.

Once racing got back underway, battle resumed with George defending against the Red Bull of Sergio Perez but was unable to hold off the Mexican driver on the fresher tyres as the Brit attempted to manage his tyres to the end of the race.

A stoppage on track for Max Verstappen brought out a brief VSC and promoted George up into the P3.

Coming over the line in P3, George claimed his first podium finish with the Mercedes team and moved him into second in the Championship standings.

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George Russell – Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One™ Team Driver

You've got to be in it to win it and capitalise from other's misfortune, and the guys at Brackley and Brixworth have been working so hard on giving us a reliable car. We got a little bit lucky today, probably twice, but we take it. There's so much hard work going on back at base to try and get us back at the front so to be standing on the podium today is a special reward for all their hard work. We're never going to give up, we've got to keep on fighting. This weekend we were a long way behind our rivals but here we are standing on the podium. We've got to keep this up while we are on the back foot, maximise our points opportunities and I am sure we will get there after a few more races.

Formula One moves on to Imola for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix on Friday, April 22 with FP1 at 12:30pm BST.

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