A dramatic qualifying session for the Formula 1 Mexican Grand Prix left us scrambling to find enough “winners” for our regular list of winners and losers – with only a few overachieving and many ruining missed opportunities.
Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Pole)
Lewis Hamilton always believed Ferrari had a car in Mexico capable of taking pole position – but he knew achieving it would be another matter.
So, after a 2026 season in which Ferrari failed to complete those final laps in Q3, Hamilton was clearly delighted to have clinched his first Grand Prix pole for the Prancing Horse.
He is also the oldest F1 driver, aged 41, since Mario Andretti famously took first place at Monza in 1982, aged 42.
Hamilton said the key to performance today was getting the tires working and finding perfect balance throughout the lap – as temperature changes front and rear changed performance throughout the circuit.
Hamilton likened this balance to “finding a needle in a haystack” – which is why he felt being down to the millimeter was essential for him to achieve his pole feat. -Jon Noble
Loser: Fernando Alonso (18th)
Few valuable weekends have been promising for Fernando Alonso this season. Mexico, relatively speaking, achieved it: 12th in FP2, 14th in FP3.
That’s about as good as it gets for the Aston Martin driver, as Honda seemed to handle Mexico’s unique challenge well. Alonso even had the brief joy of briefly being fastest after almost half the grid had set a lap time in Q1!
But he quickly dived as Alonso never returned to the pits after that lap. He was ordered to park immediately – an instruction that confused and infuriated Alonso because he was already in the stadium section, so the pit lane was very close – and did not participate again in Q1.
Even Alonso admitted he was unlikely to be on his way to the third quarter. He nevertheless says he is optimistic. And yet: “We lost a great opportunity. So, yes, the frustration is beyond imagination, but it’s the story of the year.”
Of course, there was yet another Aston Martin that could have put the pieces together. But Lance Stroll instead suffered another Q1 exit, almost two-tenths of a second slower than Alonso despite finishing the entire opening segment. -Scott Mitchell-Malm
Loser: Max Verstappen (4th)
A purple sector just as pole favorite Charles Leclerc missed his final lap suggested Max Verstappen could come back from an unhappy Friday to top qualifying – even if his penalty meant he wouldn’t actually start from pole.
He was optimistic about the slight traffic disruption caused by Lando Norris that led to a poor pole shot, and much more pleased with the car than he had been at any point in practice. And that convinced him that he was “in the fight for pole”.
Instead – thanks to the events of yesterday and today – he finished fourth and he will only start fifth, hence victory will be much more difficult. – Mate beer
Winner: George Russell (2nd)
George Russell was delighted to take his Mercedes to the top spot after a difficult weekend so far in Mexico, but couldn’t explain where it came from.
Having not completed a single lap throughout the weekend that seemed to worry his rivals, Russell’s intuition in abandoning a plan for a warm-up lap and launching it immediately paid off.
But it also caused him to waste the extra lap of fuel he was unnecessarily carrying – which he said was worth far more than the 0.009 second difference to pole position man Hamilton.
He said the Mexican competition epitomized for him a season that was a story of great highs and great lows.
“I never do an average lap – it’s either a terrible lap or a good lap,” he said. “It’s frustrating…” -JN
Loser: Kimi Antonelli (5th)
He’s on the verge of becoming F1 world champion at the age of 20, in only his second season on the grid, and after starting the year as an underdog against a much more experienced teammate and not really living up to (very high) expectations in his rookie season.
So, to some extent, who really cares or will remember where Kimi Antonelli actually qualifies and finishes at the Mexican GP?
But given how extraordinary his season has been, it’s sad to see that the visibly ill championship leader isn’t really in contention in Mexico so far.
Such a sensational title race deserves a podium finish, and at the moment, that seems unlikely. -Mo
Loser: Racing Bulls (8th and 9th – but a DSQ)
Having finished qualifying eighth and ninth, once again firmly best of the rest behind the top four and ahead of a McLaren, and with the sole effect of Liam Lawson’s grid penalty seemingly simply changing the order of his cars, Racing Bulls were initially candidates for the winners’ column here.
Lawson was then relegated to the back of the grid for an MGU-K infraction, and it became clear that Arvid Lindblad felt they had the car to do much better than they actually did.
Although ninth place in Q3 looked good for Lindblad, he had reached second place for part of Q2.
And some extremely short responses in his post-session media quill showed that Lindblad was in fact extremely unhappy with his performance.
“Today we had a car to race with the best teams, and I didn’t do that work, so it’s very upsetting,” he said, later calling his driving “not good enough.”
Those who have listened closely to Lindblad this year will know that he can be extremely hard on himself. It’s easy to understand why he’s frustrated, even if the reaction seems slightly exaggerated given how high up the grid he still starts. -Jack Benyon
Loser: Oscar Piastri (13th)
Oscar Piastri was the biggest shock of qualifying as the McLaren driver failed to even make it to Q3. It wasn’t even close.
A poor banker and an aborted first attempt on a second run left Piastri with plenty to do on his final lap in Q2. The car was fast enough to pass even with a rather slow lap. Piastri’s problem was that his round was just plain slow.
He struggled with rear grip and was noticeably too cautious in the intermediate sector, en route to a lap 0.3 seconds out of the top 10 and 0.9 seconds slower than teammate Norris, leading in Q2.
It’s not an exceptional track for Piastri, nor one he particularly likes, but it is particularly poor even for a driver who hasn’t had the best of the 2026s.
McLaren’s qualifying then came to a disappointing end as Norris, who had been flirting with the idea of getting involved in the pole fight throughout, had a disappointing Q3 and aborted his final lap – so he only finished sixth fastest. -SMM
Loser: Haas (15th & 19th)
One slowest car in Q2, one car in Q1 – it was a pretty poor set of results on paper for Haas but a worse situation in the broader context.
For starters, Ollie Bearman should have been closer to the top 10 than 15th. He was 11th in Q1 and had the pace to be there or thereabouts again in Q2, but made a mistake on his fastest lap – going wide at turn 12 in the stadium section, costing him time and then the whole lap as it was a track limits violation.
The noise of the steering wheel, the frustration and the excuses (plural) on the radio say it all.
As for replacement Ryo Hirakawa, his qualifying debut was solid. The first two runs of Q1 were three tenths behind Bearman, but that eluded him in the end as he failed to improve in the intermediate sector – so the final gap was exaggerated.
It was decent enough for him, but for Haas as a whole, dealing with this sudden situation with Esteban Ocon’s shock mid-weekend exit is like trying to make the best of a bad situation – and Saturday was a bad situation.
Meanwhile, Audi appears a looming threat to seventh place in the Constructors’ Championship and now has a car in the top 10 thanks to Lawson’s demotion. -SMM
Gn sports
