Australian Grand Prix 2024: When is the race, qualifying, past results and where to watch

All the latest information on the 2024 Australian Grand Prix including how to watch, odds, race and qualifying start time and news

After two races in the Middle East in two weeks, Formula One returns with the Australian Grand Prix, which runs from Friday March 22 until Sunday March 24. 
Once more the track that hosts the race is the Albert Park Circuit, as it has done since 1996. We have had a different winner every year since 2019 (the race was not held in 2020 and 2021). 
The chances of that happening again look to be slim, with Max Verstappen already running away with the championship after four rounds. 
First practice: 1.30am-2.30am GMTSecond practice: 5am-6am
Third practice: 1.30am-2.30amQualifying: 5am GMT
Australian Grand Prix 2024: 4am
Mercedes are planning on ‘experimenting’ with their 2024 car at the Australian Grand Prix, according to trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin. 
The team sit fourth in the teams’ standings and have had another difficult start to the season, with their best race result after Bahrain and Saudi Arabia being George Russell’s fifth place in Sakhir. 
“There’s definitely data that we’re picking through from Jeddah,” Shovlin said. “We’re also looking at data from the Bahrain race [and the] Bahrain test and we will come up with a plan for how we approach free practice in Melbourne. But it’s not just based on what we did in Jeddah.
“There’s a lot of work going on within the aerodynamics department, vehicle dynamics department.
“We’re trying to design some experiments there that will hopefully give us a direction that’s good for performance.”
“The balance wasn’t great. So those very fast corners, the walls aren’t particularly far away – so the ones where the driver wants a lot of confidence – and quite often we were snapping to oversteer if they really leaned on the tyres.
“And you can easily imagine how unsettling that is for the drivers. Now, that was a factor in qualifying and the race.
“In qualifying we were also suffering a bit with the bouncing. That was less of a problem in the race. There’s more fuel on the car. You’re going a bit slower. And that seemed to calm down, and wasn’t such an issue.
“And then the big one is we don’t really have enough grip there. So that’s one of the things that we are working hard on this week, because Melbourne has similar nature of corners.
“So we’re doing a lot of work to try and understand why did we not seem to have the grip of some of our close competitors.”
As with 18 other races out of the 22 from 2023, Max Verstappen was the winner in Melbourne. Lewis Hamilton scored a rare second-place for Mercedes, his best result of the season with Fernando Alonso on the podium for Aston Martin. The race had plenty of action, culminating in a couple of late stoppages and a huge restart crash. Only 12 drivers took the chequered flag. 
First Grand Prix: 1996Number of laps: 58Circuit length: 5.278kmRace distance: 306.124kmRace lap record: 1min20.235sec (Sergio Perez, 2023)
As with the past few years, Sky Sports F1 have every single practice session, qualifying and race live this year. 
If you do not want to take out a full sky subscription then you can get access to the 2024 F1 season through Now TV which has 12 Sky Sports channels for £26 a month and a six-month minimum term. 
If you want to catch extended highlights then Channel 4 is your go-to broadcaster, with their qualifying program on Saturday and their race program on Sunday. You can also sign up to Now TV on a race-by-race or month-by-month basis. 
If you are outside of the UK then you can likely subscribe to F1’s own F1TV, which you can do so with a monthly subscription. 
Max Verstappen 2/1Sergio Perez 15/2Charles Leclerc 11/1Lewis Hamilton 33/1George Russell, Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso 40/1
2023: Max Verstappen, Red Bull2022: Charles Leclerc, Ferrari2019: Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes2018: Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari2017: Sebastian Vettel, Ferrari2016: Nico Rosberg, Mercede2015: Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes2014: Nico Rosberg, Mercedes2013: Kimi Raikkonen, Lotus2012: Jenson Button, McLaren2011: Sebastian Vettel, Red Bull2010: Jenson Button, McLaren2009: Jenson Button, Brawn2008: Lewis Hamilton, McLaren2007: Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari2006: Fernando Alonso, Renault2005: Giancarlo Fisichella, Renault2004: Michael Schumacher, Ferrari2003: David Coulthard, McLaren2002: Michael Schumacher, Ferrari2001: Michael Schumacher, Ferrari2000: Michael Schumacher, Ferrari