Winners and losers from the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying

Lando Norris’ grip on the F1 2025 title tightened further in qualifying in Las Vegas, as he stormed to pole position ahead of Max Verstappen.

Here is PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Winners and losers from the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: Lando Norris

It’s not all that long ago that it would be a coin toss as to which McLaren driver would come out on top on any given weekend, such was the closeness of the Norris/Piastri partnership for most of this season.

But Norris continues to show all the hallmarks of a driver who has learned from his past disappointments and, more importantly, as a person who admits to having wobbles of self-doubt, that those moments don’t necessarily need to affect his driving.

On a night in which just keeping the car pointing the right direction was an achievement, Norris was simply masterful when it counted at the tail end of qualifying.

His final lap, relative to someone no less impressive than Mr. Max Verstappen in the same crunch moment, was the kind of performance that we’ve seen so many times from the Dutch driver: a scintillating lap that saw him almost a full second up after the first two sectors.

Such was his superiority that he could afford quite a clumsy error in the final sector that not only cost him corner time, but momentum down the final straight to the finish line. Despite that, he was over three-tenths clear of Verstappen.

While the intra-McLaren battle was unpredictable up until a month or two ago, Norris has clearly stepped up a gear and is delivering on every occasion.

With no signs of wobbling, only serious misfortune stands between him and the title.

Loser: Oscar Piastri

Piastri makes the list of losers, but it is a soft ‘loss’ on this occasion as the Australian was unlucky in the final minutes.

Encountering yellow flags due to Charles Leclerc’s escape area perambulations, Piastri’s final lap was undone, but even starting that lap, he was almost six-tenths down on his teammate on an equal footing as they moved into a 1-2 position in the final minute of Q3.

Winding up in fifth overall, Piastri could have done more earlier in the session, as Norris managed, but did miss out on being able to complete a faster lap, as team boss Andrea Stella revealed after the chequered flag.

He did believe there was more time on the table for him, but there had still been operational issues on his end that meant he was “messing around” at the start of his final lap – hardly the ideal preparation for a settled driver and car package.

Having been able to dream of a maiden championship up until fairly recently, pole positions and wins suddenly seem tantalisingly out of reach, and Piastri’s rather milquetoast conclusion to the year will only provide him with some valuable lessons in the future.

Winner: Max Verstappen

While Norris was producing the headline performance of qualifying to underline his championship credentials, Max Verstappen was equally impressive throughout.

So high is the level we’re accustomed to from Verstappen that his qualifying almost appeared somewhat low-key compared to usual, despite his snatching of provisional pole position on his final lap.

He felt he had been more competitive in the extreme wet conditions at the start, admitting that he didn’t have the pace to challenge Norris for P1.

Verstappen’s reign might be in its final days, for now, but he is giving it everything that’s possible and, if Norris does falter, the reigning World Champion will still be there to punish him – something Piastri isn’t currently quite able to do.

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

For the first time since the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, a Ferrari was knocked out on pace in last place – hardly the response Lewis Hamilton would have been aiming for after the headlines of the last week or so.

Explaining afterwards that he couldn’t generate heat in his tyres, Hamilton was disappointed after showing good pace in final practice, but missed out on his final flying lap after a misunderstanding on a yellow flag.

Having encountered red lights on the start/finish straight, Hamilton aborted his lap but didn’t appear to realise that the timing line was before the point of the red lights; a critical error from the seven-time F1 World Champion.

Between the driving aspect not working out as Hamilton couldn’t find the grip he wanted, and the operational error of not realising his aborted flying lap was valid, it wasn’t one of Hamilton’s finest hours in F1.

More from the Las Vegas Grand Prix via PlanetF1.com

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Winner: Carlos Sainz

A monster qualifying session from Carlos Sainz, who is ending the season showing the same temerity and relentless pursuit of self-improvement that he showed at Ferrari.

The Spaniard hung gamely on throughout Q1 and Q2, taking an impressive third in the second session, but then stunned by being able to replicate that in the final part of qualifying.

While he had to worry about a post-qualifying investigation due to a clumsy rejoin in front of Lance Stroll in Q1, he was ultimately exonerated following a stewards’ meeting in which it was revealed Stroll hadn’t considered Sainz’s move unsafe.

Predicting that he would have been challenging for somewhere between P6 and P8 in dry conditions, the great leveller that is a wet and slippery track surface meant Sainz was able to dig deep and keep himself in the mix near the front.

Coming so soon after his Sprint race podium, Sainz is finding serious momentum and is enjoying the dynamic of being an underdog, having entered the season under a cloud after facing a big ‘demotion’ after switching to Williams from Ferrari.

But, when he looks across to see his former car being driven to last place, his former teammate struggling to keep his car on the track, and the general vibe of a blustering saccharine smile being painted on at Ferrari, Sainz may have plenty to smile about over this winter.

Loser: George Russell

Feel harsh, doesn’t it? Especially given that Russell drove superbly in qualifying, and perhaps could have even challenged for pole position outright.

But being a ‘Loser’ doesn’t just refer to a driving performance, but also a failure or inability to realise the potential within, for whatever reason.

And, certainly, Russell couldn’t do that in Q3, as he encountered a power steering issue at the start of the critical session, having been quickest of all in Q1 and Q2.

While he said that Norris may have been a step too far, he explained that the steering wheel was locking in position and, even while pushing on his final flying lap, he was in contact with his engineers to see if the issue could be rectified and to confirm the safety of the car.

“We had an issue with his power steering halfway through the session, where it was providing inconsistent levels of assistance,” Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin explained.

“Fearing that the car wouldn’t make it to the finish, George continued to push on the penultimate lap, which meant the tyres were too hot starting his final attempt.”

While expecting to be in the fight for the podium tomorrow, Russell’s chances of taking a second consecutive victory in Las Vegas took a big hit due to the problems that hit his car at the worst moment of the day.

Winner: Racing Bulls

After Racing Bulls’ double points finish in Brazil, both Liam Lawson and Isack Hadjar made it into Q3 as the Kiwi took sixth, and Hadjar in eighth.

Both have found their form as the season has gone on, and Lawson, in particular, appears a completely different driver from where he was six months ago.

It’s particularly good news for Lawson to find this form at this point of the season. While a return to Red Bull appears unlikely, with Hadjar the favourite for that promotion, Lawson is no longer playing catch-up and is starting to put in the sort of performances in the upper midfield that Yuki Tsunoda was once capable of.

Intriguingly, Lawson also hinted that he could have done more than the time that put him in P6, as he just missed out on being able to start a final flying lap: “I think we had more speed in the car and the opportunity to be higher up, however, to have both cars in Q3 is a great result.”

Having appeared uncertain about even holding onto a Racing Bulls seat for next year, Lawson surely has done enough to secure his future.

As for Hadjar, he was fortunate not to get hauled before the stewards for a failure to immediately slow for a yellow flag, almost colliding with Piastri in the process, with his haste explained afterwards.

“I think I was the last driver on track starting the lap and the track evolution was simply at its peak,” he said, “but, unfortunately, the yellow flag came out and it didn’t work in our favour.”

Loser: Yuki Tsunoda

We’re hearing quite a bit from Yuki Tsunoda about how he’s feeling like he’s much closer on pace to Max Verstappen nowadays and, certainly, there have been flashes of speed from the Japanese driver recently.

But, unfortunately for him, he’s still not producing the performances when he needs to, although his quest wasn’t helped on this occasion by a yellow flag on his final lap in Q1.

On a weekend where Verstappen could really do with having a teammate up with him to help in his quest to keep his championship alive, Tsunoda was knocked out in 19th and, once again, appears lost as he spoke about the bizarre lack of grip after the session before revealing tyre pressures may have been to blame.

”I just didn’t have any grip throughout the session; it felt like complete ice underneath me, and I was wheel spinning,” he said.

“I knew it was weird, and I wasn’t sure what had happened with the tyre set, but it felt very strange.

“Last time I used the extreme tyr,e it didn’t feel like that, and I was super quick; this time I was three seconds off everyone else, so I didn’t understand.

“Clearly, something wasn’t right and wasn’t working properly, I could feel that. Now I know my pressures were way off where they should have been, which explains the issues I had throughout Q1, but I did whatever I could in the circumstances.”

3.3 seconds slower than Verstappen in Q1… either Tsunoda couldn’t figure out the tyres, a la Hamilton, or his side of the garage made quite an error in preparation. Either way, Tsunoda came out the loser.

Winner: Pierre Gasly

With the slowest car on the grid, Gasly made it into Q3 and couldn’t hide his smile after what he branded a “mental” session.

Explaining that he loves the adrenaline of sliding around a slippery circuit, Gasly’s enthusiasm for driving on a surface akin to “ice” translated into lap time as he manhandled the A525 around to take P7 in Q2 before taking P10 in Q3.

While points might be difficult to achieve without some luck, the French driver continues to underline why Alpine has such faith in him.

Loser: Alex Albon

On a day where Sainz took P3 and has set himself up for an interesting race, Albon has given himself a lot of work to do for Sunday.

A leery moment out of Turn 16 resulted in him striking the wall and knocking the front-right corner from his car, the only driver to have his session ended prematurely due to hitting the barriers.

His radio communication back to the team suggested that he was unhappy with the amount of chatter in his ear, as team boss James Vowles acknowledged after.

“With Alex, it’s bitterly disappointing because he has been quick all weekend,” he said.

“He made a small mistake, but small mistakes get punished in Vegas. The incident could have been prevented with improved communications, and information from the team – we win and lose as a team and will come back stronger with Alex tomorrow.”

The momentum of Albon’s season has petered out somewhat over the last five races, coinciding with Sainz closing the gap in performance after getting his feet under the table.

It was a rare fumble from one of the stars of the F1 2025 championship.

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