Mercedes driver George Russell said it had been "a long time coming" to have a competitive car after winning the Australian Grand Prix on Sunday, but cautioned that Mercedes still need to raise their game. The Briton, who started the season-opener on pole, took control in Melbourne mid-way through the race after a wheel-to-wheel battle with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in the early stages. He came home ahead of teammate Kimi Antonelli by nearly three seconds and had a more than 15-second gap to Leclerc to reinforce his status as the pre-season favourite. 

"Honestly, thank you so much to the whole team because it's been a long time coming to have this car beneath us and we couldn't start off in a better way," he said. But Russell is not getting carried away with the team still getting on top of new regulations around the engines and chassis and a new challenge next weekend in China with a sprint race.