Winners and losers from the 2025 Las Vegas Grand Prix

Winner: Max Verstappen

On a night when his four-year reign of F1 could have ended, Verstappen did exactly what he needed to do to keep the title fight alive for at least another few days.

It’s no less than we’re accustomed to seeing from the four-time F1 World Champion, and it was a perfectly judged race from start to finish from Verstappen.

From vaulting off the line quicker than Norris, positioning himself to capitalise on Norris’ misjudgement of Turn 1, to his relentless pace to edge away from George Russell in the first stint… the first half of the race was already impressive from Verstappen, even before he stepped up another gear in the second half.

Told that Norris had cleared Russell and had been set the task of catching him, Verstappen remained silent and, almost immediately, raised his pace again to keep Norris at arm’s length.

With a few laps to go, Verstappen started to pull away again as Norris started coasting to save fuel, and he eventually finished with a 20-second victory – an advantage that flattered the true picture of his superiority.

Popping in the fastest time of the race on the final lap showed that Verstappen had plenty in reserve throughout the second half.

He’s long spoken about needing some luck to get back in the championship fight properly, and the double disqualification of the two McLarens is exactly that.

24 points, two race weekends, it’s game on… would you bet against him?

Loser: Oscar Piastri

While categorising Piastri as a ‘Loser’, given he finished behind both of his championship rivals and was never in the podium fight, the disqualification of the McLarens has actually helped Piastri out a little.

With Norris not pulling out a bigger gap as a result, Piastri remains 24 points behind his teammate with two races to go, just like Verstappen.

However, unlike Verstappen, Piastri shows little form and little of the spark that was on full display up until the end of the European season.

Las Vegas was the sixth race weekend in a row in which he’s finished off the podium – who would have thought that, at Monza at the start of September, it would be one of the last – if not the last – of his season?

Having been barged out of position by Lawson at Turn 1, where Piastri said he felt he’d been one of the few drivers to actually brake for the corner, it was a race of damage limitation once again for the Australian, who may have also had to contend with some minor damage to his car after the hefty impact from the clash with Lawson.

Overtaken by Charles Leclerc on track after a slight mistake while battling Isack Hadjar, Piastri struggled to make himself felt in this race, and this was exemplified by his inability to clear Kimi Antonelli despite the Mercedes running on ancient hard tyres by race end.

After the race, Piastri spoke with the same tone of resigned passivity that has become all too familiar in recent weeks, with the Australian seemingly accepting of his lot, hoping against hope that something he does between race weekends will turn things around for him.

In two weeks’ time, either Piastri, Norris, or Verstappen will be the 2025 World Champion and of the three, Piastri is the one showing the least capability of pulling it off.

Winner: Lando Norris

A near-faultless race from Lando Norris again, who showed a clear pace advantage over Oscar Piastri throughout the weekend.

Fresh off the back of his excellent qualifying effort, Norris fluffed his lines at the start of the race by braking slightly too late for Turn 1, so enthused was he in his aggressive defence against Max Verstappen off the line.

But, on a tighter line and carrying too much speed, Norris was duly eaten up by Verstappen as the Red Bull man sliced past, with Norris then having to recover his race after also being passed by George Russell.

But recover Norris did, and well, to the point where he was the only one applying the pressure on Verstappen in the closing stages, keeping the four-time F1 World Champion honest.

I’ve spoken before about how Norris is showing one of the key traits of a World Champion, the ability to step up and perform when an opportunity presents itself, and this is where Norris has Piastri beaten at present.

Unfortunately for Norris, the disqualification from the race gives him a bigger headache, as his lead is now less than one race victory’s worth, despite having done nothing wrong himself.

A tough blow, but he has shown himself more than adept at shrugging off disappointments already this year.

Loser: Gabriel Bortoleto

The disappointments of his home race in Brazil were mistakes easily forgiven.

After all, for a young man arriving at the Interlagos amphitheatre, scene of many a legendary day for the Brazilian demigod Ayrton Senna, getting over-excited and losing the head a bit is understandable.

But Bortoleto didn’t reset well this weekend in Las Vegas and was eclipsed in a major way by Nico Hulkenberg. The German showed his experience in qualifying, but Bortoleto appeared to think he’d spotted an opportunity to gain significantly when the lights went out.

Barrelling up the tight inside line, his onboard camera almost looked like a computer game lobby as he sliced past several cars along the straight approaching Turn 1.

But, unfortunately for Bortoleto, corners are something which drivers also need to consider in Formula 1 and with such a compromised line while carrying so much speed, there was nowhere for Bortoleto to go as he barrelled into the side of Lance Stroll and tagged the back of Pierre Gasly.

It was a highly clumsy move, one that underscored Bortoleto’s inexperience, and he quite rightly picked up two penalty points, as well as a grid drop for the next race.

The likeable Brazilian has had some tremendous days in his rookie season, but two races in a row where he’s retired on the opening lap, as well as crashing heavily in a Sprint, are probably the toughest part of his year so far.

As for Stroll and Gasly, their races were ruined. Stroll retired with extensive damage, while Gasly toiled around to finish 15th after being left facing the wrong way at Turn 1.

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Winner: George Russell and Kimi Antonelli

2024 Las Vegas Grand Prix winner George Russell pushed hard in the early stages of this year’s race, having pounced upon Norris’ waywardness out of Turn 1, and getting up close and personal with Max Verstappen.

But this aggression was held off by the Dutch driver, with Russell fading somewhat as his tyres cried enough. But it wasn’t until the second half of the race that Norris managed to get properly onto the back of Russell’s car and pass his compatriot, underlining what a fine job Russell had done through the first half of the race.

Battling the same steering issue that had plagued him in Q3, Russell had been in danger of losing significant time given the lack of feel and predictability, but, as he explained afterwards, the issue at least remained stable and allowed him to figure out how to drive around it.

As for Antonelli, the Italian youngster responded brilliantly to his disappointing qualifying to put in one of the stints of the season on the hard tyre compound.

Having been the only driver to take the soft for the start, an early stop for the hard meant he pounded around on the same compound for 47 laps, even holding off Piastri and Leclerc with relative ease towards the end.

If ever there was an argument as to why a mandatory two-stop strategy would be simply for the sake of creating a regulation, Antonelli’s mammoth shift is it.

With the two McLarens disqualified, Mercedes duly take a double podium, with Antonelli scoring his third of his rookie season, and the first time he’s scored podiums in consecutive races.

Second place in the Constructors’ Championship now looks much more assured, given Ferrari’s inconsistency and Red Bull’s ongoing one-car efforts.

Loser: Liam Lawson

A relatively minor incident, but one with big consequences for Lawson, after his great drive in qualifying to take sixth on the grid.

Wrong-footed by the slow-moving Russell into Turn 1, Lawson locked up and collided with Piastri, resulting in front wing damage to his Racing Bulls car.

“I’m disappointed for the team today as the car has been fast this weekend,” he said.

“It was extremely slippery into Turn 1, and once I committed to brake, the cars in front started checking up, and I didn’t have anywhere to go.

“We should have had two cars in the points today, so it’s a shame given where we started.”

With Jadjar delivering upon his eighth-place grid slot to finish in the same position, Lawson’s theory of points going begging appears true.

Winner: Charles Leclerc

After his leery performance in the wet conditions on Saturday, Leclerc proclaimed himself as “driving like an animal” during the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

And this he proved with some decisive and daring overtakes to move up to take sixth, while being within sight of fourth place at the chequered flag.

In clear air, Leclerc was consistently one of the fastest drivers on track but a lack of straight-line speed hampered his chances of scoring a fourth-place finish as he was unable to get past Piastri to get to Antonelli ahead.

“I am not satisfied finishing P6, but if I look back at my race, I didn’t leave anything on the table,” Leclerc said.

“I had some good battles and took the right risks, so on a personal note, I am satisfied with my performance today.

“The first stint was entertaining with good overtakes, working my way forward, but after our stop, it became more difficult.

“Our straight-line speed was not the strongest, so it was difficult to fight with our competitors. I made up for it a bit with how I was braking, but with Oscar (Piastri) in Kimi’s (Antonelli) DRS, it was difficult to catch them to try and gain more places.”

Lewis Hamilton also managed to move forward, having put in a great first few laps on the hard tyre. He wound up 10th at the chequered flag, not enough to be regarded as a ‘winner’, but a positive individual performance in itself.

Loser: Alex Albon

A very rare messy weekend from Albon, kicking off with his qualifying crash that left him near the back of the grid.

In terms of the race, he picked up a reprimand on the way to the grid as he reached 92km/h, accelerating away from the formation grid, having not set his speed limiter.

This wasn’t a driver error, however, as a radio failure meant the team couldn’t advise him to do so, although one would have thought this a relatively routine task when pulling away from the grid…

Radio failures can’t be said to be behind Albon’s clumsy overtake attempt on Lewis Hamilton, which resulted in him damaging his car and picking up a time penalty and penalty points; an incident that bemused Albon as Hamilton had not been hindered by the clash.

“It was a messy race today, so it’s very disappointing to come away with no points from this weekend,” he summed up afterwards.

“We didn’t have radio communication at any point in the race, so we had to go old-school with using pit boards for all comms, which compromised our race from the start.

“We sustained damage at the beginning of the race, but due to the lack of radio, it was a big risk to not know if the car was safe to drive or have any information on flags, safety cars, or debris.

“It’s an opportunity missed this weekend when we’ve had a strong pace on this track. Ultimately, it wasn’t our day, but that’s racing.”

Given Albon’s usual assuredness behind the wheel, let’s chalk this one up to just being a bad day at the office.

Winner: Carlos Sainz

Albon’s travails were perhaps brought into more focus as a result of the impressive performance of Carlos Sainz.

In the rain, Sainz had splashed his way to a top-three position, but said fighting somewhere between sixth and eighth was the more realistic picture of where Williams’ performance was in Las Vegas.

This was promptly borne out by Sainz scoring seventh place, having faded back over a race distance against the likes of Antonelli and Leclerc, cars which you would expect to have a slight advantage over the full duration of a Grand Prix.

Promoted to fifth due to the disqualifications, Sainz is now just three points away from ninth place in the Drivers’ Championship, the position directly behind Albon; a measure of just how much Sainz’s season has come on song in the latter stages, given how one-sided this particular pairing was through the first half of the season.

“We need to be happy with P7 (sic) today, as I think we did a good job and executed the race well,” he said.

“We were maybe slightly conservative with our pit stops and could’ve made Leclerc and Piastri fight for the positions on track, but these are all good learnings.

“At the end of the day, we had a good pace, similar to the top teams, and we were the fastest car out of the midfield, so we’ll take the points and continue to push in the remaining two races.”

Loser: Fernando Alonso

Loser seems a harsh word, given Alonso put in another one of his top-quality drives.

But being a ‘loser’ doesn’t just mean that a driver has performed badly, but can refer to the driver missing out through sheer misfortune or their team not delivering. Or, like Norris above, a driver can still be a winner regardless of something like a technical disqualification.

On this occasion, it’s a case of Alonso having overdelivered in qualifying to take a seventh-place grid slot, but the AMR25 lacked the overall pace and straight-line speed to be able to do much more than his eventual 11th-place (13th on the road).

His quest also wasn’t helped by being whacked at Turn 1 in the melle, resulting in some front-wing damage that, despite its appearance, didn’t sap him of too much laptime.

“It was a tough race for us as we didn’t have the pace out there,” he said afterwards.

“With dry conditions tonight, we knew it would be difficult to score any points. We also lacked top speed on the straights, so it wasn’t easy to battle or defend.”