Winners and losers from the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying

Fresh off winning the Sprint, championship leader Lando Norris continued his wave of momentum at the Brazilian Grand Prix by claiming pole position for Sunday’s main event. Max Verstappen’s titles hopes meanwhile may be over.

Here are PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying at Interlagos.

Winners and losers from the 2025 Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying

Winner: Lando Norris

For a while it looked as though Oscar Piastri was marching towards the title. Then, Max Verstappen re-appeared on the radar, on a run of trademark blistering form. But, Lando Norris is now firmly establishing himself as the favourite for the Drivers’ Championship.

Norris began his Saturday in Brazil with a Sprint win, extending his lead over Piastri from one point to nine. He followed that up by making it a pole position double, striking when it mattered most in Q3, after what had been a very unpredictable, atypical Q1 and Q2 in terms of the top 10 order.

A 1:09.511 from Norris got the job done, as the Brit continues to seemingly peak at just the right time in his title quest.

Loser: Oscar Piastri

With Norris hitting his stride, the very least that Piastri needs to do is position himself right there on the gearbox of the sister McLaren. Brazilian GP qualifying was another opportunity missed.

Piastri spoke after Friday of feeling “much happier today than the last couple of weeks”, but that momentum was dulled on Saturday.

Having fallen nine points behind Norris after crashing out of the Sprint, Piastri has given himself more work to do in his stuttering title push from fourth on the Interlagos grid. A sizeable gap re-opened between the McLarens, a deficit of 0.375 seconds not acceptable from a Piastri persuasion.

Winner: Kimi Antonelli

We have a repeat of the Sprint grid for the main Grand Prix in Brazil. That means another pat on the head for Kimi Antonelli.

The Mercedes teenager could be an intriguing factor on Sunday, having pushed Norris all the way in the Sprint. Piastri will be hoping for more of the same, as a McLaren with Mercedes-filled mirrors could be his opportunity to strike back.

That new Mercedes contract has settled Antonelli and allowed him to go from strength to strength. He has had the beating of George Russell in Brazil, and will be eyeing a first Grand Prix win as the icing on the cake.

Loser: Max Verstappen

As previously mentioned, Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying was anything but predictable. But without a shadow of a doubt, the biggest shock was Max Verstappen being eliminated in Q1.

That was on pure pace too, which is the first time this has ever happened to the reigning four-time world champion.

Verstappen just could not get out of the blocks in Q1, and set off on his final lap toiling in the elimination zone. It felt a pretty safe bet that he would make the cut, but as the underwhelming sectors combined, Verstappen took the chequered flag in 16th, and was booted from qualifying.

“Nothing really seems to work,” he rued. “We changed a lot on the car, and, yeah, we just don’t understand.

“Something is clearly just not working for us. Even with the changes of the set-up, normally, you would feel some kind of reaction, but it doesn’t. So, yeah, something is just really off.”

More from the Brazilian Grand Prix via PlanetF1.com

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Winner: Charles Leclerc

Charles Leclerc expected very little from these latter races of the season, but he is finding performance in his Ferrari from somewhere.

Brazilian GP qualifying marked a continuation of that trend. The only Ferrari driver to feature in the top 10 shootout, Leclerc muscled his way into the pole conversation. But when Norris started to truly flex his muscles, it became about chasing the front row.

That place went to Antonelli, again. But still, Leclerc shone as comfortably the faster Ferrari driver, and is in the hunt to make it a hat-trick of podiums.

Loser: Lewis Hamilton

Barring any gifts from the weather gods, scoring points is likely the battle Hamilton will face at Interlagos on Sunday.

He spoke of Ferrari lacking the pace which the team thought it had on Friday, and still, it could not be found the following day, as Hamilton added a Q2 exit to go with his SQ2 elimination.

Leclerc clearly found some qualifying goodies in the SF-25, but Hamilton did not get the memo, as his difficult first Ferrari season goes on.

Winner: Isack Hadjar

Potentially on his way to Red Bull for F1 2026, Isack Hadjar continues to do all the right things in pursuit of that seat.

He will line up fifth on the grid in Brazil, after a qualifying session which saw the junior Racing Bulls team put their parent outfit Red Bull in the shade.

Loser: Franco Colapinto

It has not been the celebratory weekend that Franco Colapinto would have envisaged in Brazil, fresh off signing his Alpine deal for F1 2026.

Admittedly, he was on the back foot in qualifying after a heavy crash in the Sprint, but that more competitive pace versus Pierre Gasly, which had swayed Alpine towards retaining Colapinto’s services, was not on show at all in qualifying.

With seven-tenths between he and Gasly at the end of Q1, such a gap in modern Formula 1 often spells elimination. It did for Colapinto.

Winner: Oliver Bearman

Haas’ Oliver Bearman actually went into Q3 as a contender for pole position, such was his blistering pace shown in the prior segments.

Ultimately, Q3 did not go quite so swimmingly, but eighth on the grid was nonetheless a very impressive response to his Sprint tangle with Liam Lawson.

Loser: Yuki Tsunoda

When Max Verstappen cannot get a tune out of the Red Bull, the writing is almost on the wall for the second driver. It definitely is when the gap is three-tenths on top of that.

Tsunoda was absolutely no exception in a terrible day for Red Bull overall.

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