Winners and losers from the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix qualifying

Lando Norris has secured his fourth pole position of the F1 2025 season at the Belgian Grand Prix, but further down the starting order at Spa-Francorchamps is a dejected Lewis Hamilton wondering where it all went wrong.

These are PlanetF1.com’s winners and losers from qualifying for the 2025 Belgian Grand Prix.

Winners and Losers from 2025 British Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: McLaren

McLaren driver Lando Norris has secured his fourth pole position of the F1 2025 campaign at the Belgian Grand Prix, riding the momentum of the previous two events.

While Norris won both the Austrian and British grands prix, he’s looked to be a step behind teammate Oscar Piastri throughout the weekend at Spa in terms of sheer pace.

But when the quickest session of the weekend kicked off, it was Norris who was able to capitalise when it mattered most.

Yet while Norris’ pole is a strong performance, pole at the Belgian Grand Prix isn’t always great.

In F1’s 75-year history, Spa has hosted the Belgian event 57 times; in only 27 of those races, the polesitter was able to convert pole to a victory.

And that’s why we’ve opted to group both McLaren drivers together as a collective winner; Norris is on pole, but Piastri will start right next to him on the front row.

And as we saw during the Sprint race, the driver best situated at the start of the race is the driver who can take advantage of the leader’s slipstream.

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

The move to Scuderia Ferrari has been plagued from the very start for Lewis Hamilton and even a set of new upgrades for the SF-25 have failed to provide the driver the performance — and luck — he needs to progress through the ranks.

In Sprint qualifying, Hamilton spun on his final flying lap, which subsequently aborted his performance and resulted in an 18th place on the Sprint starting grid.

Then, in grand prix qualifying, the seven-time World Champion had his final flying lap time scrapped; he had exceeded track limits.

It’ll be 16th on grid for him come Sunday afternoon.

In a season filled with difficult performances, this is likely one that will sting Hamilton the most, particularly because his team-mate Charles Leclerc will be starting in third.

Winner: The Red Bull Family

Many wondered how Red Bull Racing and its sister Racing Bulls teams would perform in Belgium following a major personnel shake-up that saw Christian Horner sacked and replaced with former Racing Bulls team principal Laurent Mekies; Mekies in turn was replaced by Alan Permane.

The answer to the performance question? Well, so far, so good.

Max Verstappen is once again the best of the bunch; he’s lining up fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race.

And, for the first time since the Miami Grand Prix in early May, his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda also made it through to Q3. The Japanese driver is lining up seventh.

Just behind him is the Racing Bulls duo of Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson, who secured eighth and ninth on the grid respectively.

While their grid positions are not the personal bests for any of the Red Bull family drivers, it marks a strong debut in the aftermath of a truly chaotic three-week break and it promises decent performance come race day.

More Belgian Grand Prix analysis:

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Loser: Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli appeared a bit emotional as he headed to the media pen following another painful qualifying session, this time for the Belgian Grand Prix.

In Sprint qualifying, Antonelli ran wide into the gravel on his first flying lap, compromising the rest of his run and confining him to 20th on the grid.

While he kept his Mercedes on track during grand prix qualifying, he struggled to find enough pace to pull him into Q2. He set the 18th-quickest time.

Antonelli told media including PlanetF1.com that the team intends to change the car prior to the start of the race, which means he’ll start from the pit lane.

The European events have been particularly challenging for the Mercedes rookie, who is hoping to impress his team — which doubles as his management group — in order to secure a contract extension into the F1 2026 season.

Winner: Gabriel Bortoleto

While all eyes were on Sauber team-mate Nico Hulkenberg after his record-breaking podium at the British Grand Prix, Gabriel Bortoleto has stolen the spotlight this weekend at the Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps.

In both Sprint qualifying and grand prix qualifying, the Brazilian driver set a time good enough to start 10th on the grid — meaning that he made it through to both SQ3 and Q3.

This weekend has tipped the head-to-head qualifying scales in Bortoleto’s favor, outperforming teammate Hulkenberg in seven of six grand prix qualifying sessions and two of three sprint sessions.

Bortoleto’s pre-F1 racing record is impressive, winning both the Formula 3 and Formula 2 titles in his rookie year — but the move to Formula 1 was always going to prove challenging.

Particularly because he’d be lining up alongside one of the most experienced drivers on the grid.

But now, halfway through the season, it seems as if Bortoleto has found his footing.

Hulkenberg, meanwhile, will start 14th on Sunday.

Loser: Aston Martin

Aston Martin brought a fresh set of upgrades to the Belgian Grand Prix, which includes a modified nose designed to improve the airflow underneath the front wing.

Further, both drivers for the team told media including PlanetF1.com after qualifying that they’d made a handful of setup changes in order to prepare for the rain predicted to fall on Sunday.

A slight loss of pace could perhaps be expected, but Fernando Alonso claims it’s “no excuse” for himself and team-mate Lance Stroll qualifying 19th and 20th respectively.

If the Sprint race showed us anything, it’s the fact that overtaking in race conditions can be very difficult this weekend at Spa, so the duo’s hopes of carving through traffic en route to a points-paying position is going to depend heavily on a strong strategy.

But according to Alonso, efforts to find a setup that balances straight-line speed with effective cornering has proven impossible.

“There’s nothing terribly wrong with the lap, but when you cross the line, it’s not fast enough,” he admitted.

The top four teams in the Constructors’ Standings have amassed a majority of the points this season, which leaves every team from fifth place down to 10th battling for the critical points that can result in greater prize money at the end of the season.

Aston Martin currently sits eighth, tied with Racing Bulls at 36 points.

But with its competition qualifying well this weekend, the Aston Martin team can expect to slip further down the standings.

Read next: Belgian GP: Norris pips Piastri to pole as Hamilton suffers latest Ferrari disaster