page_title: 2019 Australian Grand Prix
section_title: Background
hierarchical_section_title: 2019 Australian Grand Prix / Background
caption_attribution_description: English: Federation Square from Eureka Tower Skydeck, August 2007.
context_page_description: The 2019 Australian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race that was held on 17 March 2019 in Melbourne, Victoria. The race was contested at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit and was the first round of the 2019 FIA Formula One World Championship. The race marked the 84th race in the combined history of the Australian Grand Prix – which dates back to the 100 Miles Road Race of 1928 – the 24th time the event was held at the Albert Park circuit and the 35th time the Australian Grand Prix had been a part of the Formula One World Championship.
  Lewis Hamilton entered the round as the defending World Drivers' Champion and his team, Mercedes, are the defending World Constructors' Champions. Hamilton got pole position for the race equalling the record for most poles at one Grand Prix, but it was his Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas who won the Grand Prix from second on the grid.
context_section_description: The Australian Grand Prix was officially confirmed as the first of twenty-one races of the 2019 Formula One World Championship at an FIA World Motor Sport Council meeting in Paris in December 2018. The race took place at the fifteen-turn, 5.303 km (3.295 mi) Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit in Melbourne, Victoria on 17 March 2019. Melbourne's Federation Square hosted a season launch event, the first of its kind for the sport, in the week before the race.
  Race Director Charlie Whiting died suddenly in the week before the race, so Deputy Race Director Michael Masi was named as Whiting's temporary successor. Local officials were appointed to fill Whiting's additional roles until a long-term appointment could be made ahead of the Bahrain Grand Prix. As of the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Masi remains the Race Director.
caption: Federation Square hosted the first Formula One season launch.
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