Winners and losers from the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix

It was victory for Lando Norris in Mexico City — prompting a swing in the championship standings for the first time since Saudi Arabia along with plenty of drama from start to finish.

These are PlanetF1.com’s full list of winners and losers from the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez.

Winners and losers from the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix

Winner: Lando Norris

Lando Norris snagged a dominant pole position in Mexico City, and following a stunning start, he managed to translate that pole into victory.

Norris led from the jump; Charles Leclerc cut a corner to take the lead very briefly only to give the position back, but that was the last anyone saw of the papaya driver. When he ultimately took the checkered flag, it was with a lead of just over 30 seconds.

Following a few tough race weekends for the McLaren crew, this was a critical turn of form that the papaya team is likely hoping will continue into the final four grands prix of the year.

Oh, and the Drivers’ Championship standings? Lando Norris is topping the charts at the moment thanks to that win, unseating teammate Oscar Piastri for the first time since the fifth race of the season.

Loser: Oscar Piastri

For the first time since the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Oscar Piastri is no longer in the lead of the F1 2025 Drivers’ Championship standings.

Now, the gap between himself and teammate Lando Norris is marginal — as in, just one single point separating the two of them. Piastri acknowledged that, following his messy start, he very well could have lost even more ground, which makes his P5 something of a win.

But it has to be said that Piastri’s performance of late has left a lot to be desired; Mexico City was a step in the right direction, but it was by no means enough to assure him that the title is in his grasp. He’ll have to fight hard in the remaining four races of the year — not only against his teammate, but against a resurgent Max Verstappen.

Winner: Oliver Bearman (and Haas)

A triumphant Oliver Bearman went from lamenting his loss of Free Practice 1 to a different rookie to taking home a career-best finish of P4 come the conclusion of the Mexico City Grand Prix — a genuinely impressive performance.

While he felt that a podium was potentially on the table for him had he not pitted for fresh tyres when he did, he nevertheless was able to make the most of a chaotic race start to bypass the Mercedes duo and put his name in the conversation right from the start.

And with Esteban Ocon finishing the race in ninth place, it’s obvious that Haas has found something with the upgrade it brought in Austin, allowing the team to gain critical ground in the Constructors’ standings.

More PlanetF1.com analysis from the 2025 Mexico City Grand Prix:

👉 Debunking McLaren sabotage conspiracy as momentum swings to Norris

👉 Pace and pressure: The curious case of Piastri and Verstappen’s qualifying woes

Loser: Williams

The hectic start of the Mexico City GP claimed a handful of victims, even if their damage didn’t manifest until later in the race, and that was absolutely the case with Williams.

Carlos Sainz started the race colliding with Liam Lawson as the field went four wide; shortly after, he ended up with a five-second penalty for speeding on pit lane, then had to pass through the pit lane again due to another penalty later in the race. And to add insult to injury, he overheated his tyres trying to overtake Lance Stroll for P14 and ended his race in the wall.

Meanwhile, Alex Albon was one of three drivers to start the race on hard tyres, which turned out to be the wrong choice. He told media they were “committed to something that wasn’t working” in opting for a one-stop strategy, leaving him with no better than 12th to finish the day.

Winner: Charles Leclerc (and Ferrari)

Much like Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc held onto his starting position all the way through to the conclusion of the race despite a hard challenge from Max Verstappen that came to a premature conclusion thanks to a Virtual Safety Car. That, though, was much in Leclerc’s favor.

Leclerc admitted that he was a bit surprised to end up on the podium, considering Ferrari hasn’t been particularly consistent in its pace and that the Scuderia also had very little idea what to expect.

And great news for Ferrari: the Prancing Horse has now usurped Mercedes for second in the championship standings. It’ll be a tight battle going forward, because that gap is exactly one point — but it’s still a good bit of momentum moving forward.

Loser: Isack Hadjar

Isack Hadjar’s Mexico City Grand Prix started off well and proceeded to fall apart in the second stint of the race, where one driver after another passed him with ease.

Hadjar described his race as “painful,” noting that he didn’t have new tyres to change onto during his pit stop, which made all the difference when compared to the other cars around him.

Add onto that a mistake on the first lap that cost him several positions right at the start, and it was a matter of damage mitigation throughout the race that unfortunately ended with no better than 13th on track.

Winner: Max Verstappen

After struggling all weekend with an almost universal lack of grip and a truly chaotic start, Max Verstappen ended up on the last step of the podium.

From fifth on the grid, Verstappen took it four wide around the outside of Norris, Kimi Antonelli, and George Russell, running into the grass and almost entirely cutting the corner. He returned to the track having made up positions over the competition, then went wheel-to-wheel with Lewis Hamilton in a scrappy battle that saw both drivers take excursions off the track.

But once he swapped from the troublesome medium tyres onto the favored softs, Verstappen was unstoppable. Without the late-race VSC bringing a premature end to his battle with Leclerc, Verstappen very well could have ended up finishing second.

Loser: Alpine

Unfortunately, it was another challenging weekend for the Alpine duo of Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly; they were the last two drivers to take the checkered flag, both of them a lap down.

Gasly was unimpressed by the long stint he did on soft tyres at the start of the race, and he told media that the strategy they ended up using was not one of the various strategies the team discussed before the race.

Colapinto did the opposite, starting the race on hard tyres only to discover, like Albon did, that it was the wrong call to maintain track position.

It’s another weekend without points for Alpine.

Read next: Mexican GP: Dominant Norris takes title lead as Hamilton penalised after Verstappen incident