F1 News Today: Lewis Hamilton avoids major crash as McLaren star tops day one of 2026 season

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Bahrain, 2026 — Photo: © IMAGO

F1 Today

F1 News Today: Lewis Hamilton avoids major crash as McLaren star tops day one of 2026 season

The F1 season gets underway in Melbourne this weekend

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Friday 6 March 2026 07:40

Lewis Hamilton was given a huge scare during the second practice session of the first F1 race of the season at the Australian Grand Prix.

The Ferrari star impressed for Ferrari on day one of the new season but had to take last-minute action to avoid a terrifying crash at Albert Park.

Hamilton had to quickly swerve on the straight to avoid a slow running Franco Colapinto, with the Brit shocked with his team radio message afterwards.

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Aus GP practice results: Mercedes fight back as Lewis Hamilton impresses for Ferrari

Mercedes and McLaren fought back after a middling FP1 session at the Australian Grand Prix on Friday, reestablishing themselves as the teams to beat in 2026.

Early free practice sessions are notoriously unhelpful for figuring out teams' true pace as they keep their engine tuned down and run different fuel loads, but FP1 saw Ferrari and Red Bull comfortably top of the timing boards.

FP2 was a completely different story, with Oscar Piastri going fastest ahead of Kimi Antonelli and George Russell to complete a Mercedes-powered top three at the end of the session.

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Aston Martin nightmare deepens after Fernando Alonso ruled out of practice

Aston Martin F1 star Fernando Alonso has been forced to withdraw from the first practice session of the 2026 championship at this weekend's Australian Grand Prix.

The Spaniard's F1 squad have had a disastrous start to the new campaign which is seeing a complete overhaul of chassis and power unit regulations, with his AMR26 car suffering frequent problems with the new Honda power unit.

And the team who are competing under the watchful eye of Adrian Newey this season have encountered another issue before even taking to the track in Melbourne, with Alonso confirmed to not be taking part in the FP1 session at all after the team found yet another suspected power unit related issue.

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Jack Doohan claims Flavio Briatore 'decided his fate' before final F1 race

F1 star Jack Doohan has admitted to being 'on borrowed time' under the watchful eye of ruthless team boss, Flavio Briatore

There may be another team on the grid in 2026 in the form of Cadillac, but there are still only 22 spaces on offer to become a full-time driver in the pinnacle of motorsport, making it a fiercely competitive environment to excel in.

Time and time again the sport has chewed up drivers and spat any of them out who were perhaps not ready to make the jump up to F1, or who were simply never awarded enough time to get to grips with its demands.

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Is this the moment Christian Horner forgot he was being filmed?

Former Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner appears to have been caught out by the reliably sneaky Netflix cameras in an uncomfortable clip from the new series of Drive to Survive.

Ahead of this weekend's Australian Grand Prix which marks the first round of the F1 2026 championship, fans were treated once again to the annual pre-season warm up of Drive to Survive, the hit Netflix docuseries that offers behind the scenes access to some of the sport's biggest stars.

The latest instalment was released last month and followed the eventful F1 2025 championship that saw Horner abruptly sacked from his role at the helm of Red Bull F1 team that he had held for over 20 years.

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