Winners and losers from the 2025 United States Grand Prix qualifying

The Max Verstappen resurgence in 2025 continues apace at the United States Grand Prix, where the Red Bull driver capped off his Saturday with both a Sprint race victory and a pole position for Sunday’s race.

But not everyone had such a strong weekend, and a hot and gusty qualifying session in Austin, Texas brought plenty of intrigue as we head into the US event.

Winners and losers from the 2025 United States Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: Max Verstappen

With each on-track session that passes, the idea of a late-season Max Verstappen championship surge seems more and more likely. His stunning pole position in Austin on Saturday evening following his dominance of the afternoon’s Sprint is yet another example.

The Red Bull driver has been on another level all weekend long, topping the timing charts. In fact, he even failed to arrive at the timing line in time to kick off his final flying lap before the checkered flag flew — and even then, the earlier time he’d set remained untouchable.

Verstappen had a flawless start in the Sprint race from that critical pole slot at the sharp end of the grid. If he’s able to repeat that performance on Sunday, then this title battle will certainly remain in his grasp.

Loser: Isack Hadjar

While Isack Hadjar wouldn’t go so far as to say that his qualifying crash in Austin was at all similar to his season-opening crash before the Australian Grand Prix, his disappointment in himself was just as fierce.

In the sweeping corners at the first sector, Hadjar lost control of his Racing Bulls machine and collided with the wall at high speed, bringing out an immediate red flag and triggering the deployment of the medical car due to the intensity of the impact. Physically, Hadjar was fine, but he was punching himself and his steering wheel in the cockpit after the incident.

While that meant that Hadjar didn’t have a chance to set a flying lap or put a time on the charts, it also likely stung for other reasons. This weekend appears to be a critical one for the Red Bull program, with advisor Helmut Marko pointing out that the team intends to make critical decisions about its future driver lineup around next weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix.

Since his challenging start to the year in Australia, Hadjar has been one of the most impressive rookies in the 2025 field, seeing his name readily linked to the seat alongside Max Verstappen. He’ll be hard-pressed to make a statement on Sunday thanks to his starting position.

Winner: Lando Norris

Max Verstappen may be forcing his name into the conversation when it comes to the title fight, but Lando Norris has put himself in a very strong position to make a strong statement on Sunday afternoon thanks to his second-place start.

Norris has been the stronger McLaren this weekend, at least over one-lap pace. That P2 start doesn’t guarantee a clean run into the first corner, as we saw earlier on Saturday, but Norris will likely have learned how to better manage that launch after his slower start in the Sprint.

The long-run pace of the McLarens isn’t clear at this point, but if Norris can hold on for a strong result, that points gap between himself and teammate Oscar Piastri at the top of the standings will keep growing smaller.

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Loser: Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri’s grasp on the F1 2025 championship standing has grown ever more tenuous since the sport returned from August’s summer break, and a P6 in qualifying for the 2025 United States Grand Prix seems to represent just how challenging this latter part of the season seems to have become.

Speaking to media, Piastri denied that his performance was at all related to any post-Sprint crash repairs. Rather, he said he’s been struggling to put together a clean lap, without the little mistakes that added critical milliseconds to his lap time.

Sixth on the grid doesn’t necessarily spell the end of Piastri’s championship by any means, nor does it prevent him from winning the US Grand Prix. But after a frustrating few weekends, compounded by a difficult Sprint, Piastri will primarily need to overcome the mental hurdles associated with his dip in performance if he’s looking to turn this yellow patch around.

Winner: Charles Leclerc

The US Grand Prix weekend for Charles Leclerc started from the very bottom of the charts in FP1 and only improved to a measly P10 on the starting grid for Saturday’s Sprint. But come qualifying for the Grand Prix itself, Leclerc’s pace was strong enough to snatch a top-three start.

He pointed out in his post-race interview that Ferrari still has plenty to work on, because the fact that the SF-25 has experienced such a fundamental swing in performance without any major changes means there’s still plenty that the team is struggling with.

But those are concerns that Leclerc will likely be able to drive away from thanks to his P3 start.

Loser: Gabriel Bortoleto

Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto was perplexed by his lack of pace in qualifying for the 2025 US Grand Prix, telling media that it’s the first weekend this season where he’s truly felt he’s struggling.

That struggle comes from the fact that he’s not confident in his ability to push the car to its limits; that’s a confidence he’s had all year, but it fell away particularly in the tricky third sector at the Circuit of The Americas.

Bortoleto will line up 16th on the grid on Sunday, which will make it quite the challenge to scrap his way into the points.

Winner: Oliver Bearman

Haas driver Oliver Bearman equalled his best qualifying performance by setting a time good enough for eighth on the grid come Sunday morning, serving as the bastion of performance for the Haas team during its home Grand Prix.

Making that push through to Q3 particularly special was his frustrating Sprint race earlier in the day, where a 10-second time penalty for gaining a position off the track saw him not only lose out on any hope for points but also drop to the very bottom of the standings as a result of the fact that the race finished under safety car conditions. Bearman kicked off his media availability by noting he felt “hard done by,” so the issue still rankled; that he was able to put it aside for a strong qualifying performance is a major win.

What Bearman needs more than a strong result, though, is a clean race. With 10 penalty points on his Super License, he’ll need to stay out of trouble in both Austin and Mexico before two of those points expire ahead of Brazil.

Loser: Alex Albon

While Carlos Sainz managed to snag another top-10 start, a track limits violation in Q1 saw Alex Albon’s flying lap deleted. As a result, he was dropped down P19 in the final classification.

But more critically, Albon told media he’s been struggling with an issue in the car this weekend. While that issue was largely solved for Grand Prix qualifying, it had the result of creating a car prone to understeer, which was therefore challenging to control.

Clearly the car had pace, as his Williams teammate managed to sneak into Q3. But it wasn’t to be for Albon.

Full qualifying report: United States GP: Verstappen charges to pole as Piastri falls flat in Qualifying