Russell finished the day leading a Mercedes one-two from teammate Kimi Antonelli and 0.785 seconds faster than the first driver not in a Mercedes, Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar.

Russell said: “We knew we had a fast car beneath us. I don’t think we ever expected it to be that fast, but Max wasn’t there.

“We had him as our main rival and if you look at his pace difference historically over the last seven years to his team-mate, you would have expected him to be in that combination as well.

“It was kind of a perfect storm.”

There may be an important element of truth in that, but there is no doubt that Mercedes has the faster car and that they are going to take a beating for a while.

McLaren also has a Mercedes engine, but its fastest driver, Oscar Piastri, fifth, was more than 0.8 seconds slower than Russell.

Most of McLaren’s lost time came on the long, straight stretch between turns six and nine of the Albert Park circuit. Mercedes was simply able to deploy more power there, because they arrived at turn six with a more charged battery.

Team principal Andrea Stella said the Mercedes was also quicker through most corners, but added: “How you exploit these power units to their full potential, this changes the lap time quite a bit.”

Why can’t McLaren still compete this way? Because Mercedes is the official team. They built the engine, so for now we have a more complete understanding of how it works.

But Mercedes’ advantage is not limited only to the management of the power unit. They have also built a very good car.

Stella said: “The Mercedes are fast in the corners, not just the straights. There are some corners where we can compete with them, but overall they are faster in the grip-limited sections.”

But he added that this could also partly have to do with engine usage.

“What we see is that every time we max out the power unit, somehow everything works better and you also go faster in the corners,” he said.