Winners and losers from F1’s 2025 United States Grand Prix

It was hardly a classic United States Grand Prix, but it’s one that’s closed the Formula 1 title race up, and produced plenty of winners and losers.

Here are our picks:

Loser: McLaren (2nd and 5th)

There were more points scored here, but Austin felt like an even worse weekend than Baku for McLaren for two main reasons. 

Number one, the sprint clash really wasn’t good. It instantly handed Max Verstappen eight precious points and would have compromised McLaren’s preparation for the grand prix with no race data.

And number two, the lack of pace of its points leader Oscar Piastri in particular on a more conventional track than Baku – something far harder to write off as a one-off.

Piastri made one place on the opening lap (on George Russell’s Mercedes) but made zero progress thereafter, with Lewis Hamilton’s last-lap panic the only sniff of Piastri getting anything better than fifth.

A couple more weekends like this and the championship lead Piastri worked so hard (and well) to build will be completely gone.

Instead, the McLaren drivers both have to find an extra gear, or Verstappen’s going to steal a championship that really should be one of theirs. – Josh Suttill

Winner: Max Verstappen (1st)

We pondered on Saturday whether Verstappen would’ve been laughing after McLaren’s double-DNF in the sprint race. He’ll be purring after this performance.

Verstappen claimed in the post-race preference – after surely the most dominant of his 2025 wins, his third in the last four grands prix – that he’ll need to be perfect to win the title from here. After all, there are still 40 points to make up.

But on the current trajectory, it’s really not as tall an order as it seems – that’s now 64 points claimed back on Piastri in four race weekends. So the maths, and the momentum, is well and truly in his favour right now.

Game on? “We will try whatever we can,” he said. “I think it is exciting.” – Jack Cozens

Loser: Williams (14th and DNF)

Sainz dulled the sheen of his sprint race podium with an ill-judged lunge on Kimi Antonelli that ended his own race and hampered the Mercedes. 

More costly than the damage could be a grid drop in Mexico, if Sainz is served a post-race penalty. Furthermore, he lost his chance at points, having passed Haas’s Ollie Bearman for eighth in the opening laps.

Alex Albon spun after contact with Bortoleto at the start and that result left Williams without points from Sunday’s race.

The saving grace is that Williams is 39 points ahead of Racing Bulls in the battle for fifth in the standings. – Samarth Kanal

Winner: Ferrari (3rd and 4th)

Ferrari was outscored by Red Bull this weekend – thanks to Verstappen – but the Scuderia actually made up ground in the chase for second in the constructors’ championship.

Leclerc leapfrogged Norris at the start but had to settle for the final podium spot when the championship contender inevitably passed him. Hamilton also drove a solid race, making up one place and keeping Piastri at bay.

So 27 more useful points meant Ferrari limited the damage from Verstappen’s dominant weekend and outscored Mercedes by 20 points across the sprint and the grand prix. Just seven points split Mercedes and Ferrari, with Red Bull another three adrift heading to Mexico. – SK

Loser: Kimi Antonelli (13th)

You have to feel for Antonelli, who made a good start to the race to clear the midfield cars and join the back of his team-mate Russell, only to then be wiped out by Sainz.

The stewards are yet to rule on who is at fault, but it didn’t feel like Sainz had enough of his Williams alongside Antonelli to justify the move.

Antonelli showed strong flashes of speed thereafter during his recovery – including the fastest lap of the race – but that only makes it all the more frustrating that he finished 13th. – JS

Winner: Yuki Tsunoda (7th)

Another day, another solid save that was of Tsunoda’s own making.

There was a bullish first lap, just as there was in the sprint, to make up three places early on; an opportunistic pass on Bearman while the Haas driver was still reeling from being passed by Carlos Sainz; and a robust (potentially borderline) defence of position against the same driver in the second stint.

OK, there are a few caveats to throw in, and it’s annoying to still have to do so: without the Sainz-Antonelli clash, he’d probably have been ninth; the pace was a concern towards the end of the first stint and at the start of the second in particular (that’s what allowed Bearman to close in); and Red Bull really needs him to be higher up now Verstappen’s back in this title fight.

But Tsunoda stood up to the tests thrown at him this weekend, and there’s only a handful of times we’ve been able to say that since he’s been in the RB21. – JC

Loser: Pierre Gasly (19th)

Finishing last in an Alpine isn’t instantly loser-worthy in 2025 now, but given Gasly’s shown flashes of strong – by late-2025 Alpine standards – pace this weekend, it was a grim slide to the back.

It’s one that involved a slow pitstop that dropped into a battle with Esteban Ocon’s Haas, and then a baffling Alpine call for Franco Colapinto to hold position behind his struggling team-mate in the closing laps.

Thankfully, Colapinto did crack on and overtake Gasly to inflict a second straight grand prix intra-team victory. – JS

Winner: Nico Hulkenberg (8th)

This was Hulkenberg’s first points-scoring race since Silverstone in July (where he landed on the podium) as he made progress from 11th.

On Sunday, he ended that drought but also secured Sauber four points – putting it just 10 points behind Aston Martin in the constructors’ standings. – SK

Loser: Gabriel Bortoleto (18th)

As we were drawing up this list, it felt slightly harsh to nominate Bortoleto for our losers’ section. He didn’t really do anything wrong, after all; certainly, he couldn’t really be blamed for the contact with Alex Albon on the opening lap.

But his post-race media session gave an indication of just how bewildering a weekend this was.

“There was no [other] weekend this year that I’ve been off Nico in a way that I cannot find laptime, and I think yesterday in quali I was just off. We have been trying a lot of different things in the car that didn’t work,” said Bortoleto, before adding, “It has definitely been the most difficult weekend for me in Formula 1.”

And that was the nail in the coffin here: it wasn’t just an anonymous Sunday performance, Bortoleto was anonymous all weekend long in a car that was arguably the class of the midfield.

That’s not what we’ve come to expect from the Sauber rookie, who’s only grown as the season has gone on. And avoiding the ignominy of finishing last by passing a sinking Pierre Gasly on the final lap will offer scant consolation. – JC

Loser: Racing Bulls (11th and 16th)

No points for Racing Bulls in Austin with Liam Lawson having been boxed in at the start and then frustrated by Fernando Alonso.

Isack Hadjar meanwhile started 20th and finished 16th, going long in his first stint and finding little benefit from that as there was no safety car. 

More concerning for the team is the car’s balance over bumps and kerbs – a concerning trait for Racing Bulls as it’s just three points ahead of Aston Martin in the fight for sixth. – SK