Five winners and five losers from first qualifying of F1 2025

The first qualifying session of the 2025 F1 season lived up to the pre-season hype at the Australian Grand Prix.

One team may have ended up dominating, but there were plenty of surprises throughout as the first accurate picture of the 2025 pecking order was finally revealed.

Here are our winners and losers from an exciting qualifying in Melbourne.

Winner - McLaren

Despite both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri putting themselves under initial pressure by blowing their first runs in Q3, it ended up being a perfect start to the year for McLaren.

Norris eclipsed his teammate by just 0.084s to claim the first pole position of the season as McLaren locked out the front-row of the Albert Park grid and blew their rivals away.

A considerable margin of nearly four-tenths to third-placed Max Verstappen underlined McLaren’s early performance and backed up their billing as clear favourites heading into the campaign.

Loser - Ferrari

There will be some serious head-scratching down at Ferrari tonight after a disappointing qualifying showing in Australia.

Ferrari looked like McLaren’s main competitions on Friday, but their promising one-lap pace vanished on Saturday as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton struggled.

Leclerc could only manage seventh, while seven-time world champion Hamilton was eighth after surviving a spin during Q2 on his qualifying debut for F1’s most famous team.

Ferrari ended up a concerning eight tenths adrift of McLaren, while a nightmare Q3 was compounded further when Leclerc and Hamilton were usurped by the Racing Bulls of Yuki Tsunoda and the Williams of Alex Albon late on.

Winner - Max Verstappen

Reigning world champion Verstappen completed an impressive recovery from his Friday practice struggles to take third.

The Dutchman, who is looking to win a fifth successive drivers’ crown in 2025, admitted he was “quite surprised” to find himself on the second row of the grid after handling issues hampered him throughout practice.

But Red Bull were able to turn things around come qualifying, with Verstappen setting the early pace in Q3 and managing to stay ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell to grab third.

Verstappen has brilliantly put himself right in contention for a victory he had ruled out coming into the weekend, and his chances will surely improve if the forecast rain arrives considering his renowned wet-weather abilities.

Loser - Liam Lawson

It was a contrasting day of fortunes at Red Bull, with Liam Lawson enduring a messy qualifying debut for his new team.

Lawson was eliminated in the first part of qualifying with the 18th fastest time out of the 19 drivers who completed Q1, with a mistake on his final run costing him the chance to progress further.

The 22-year-old New Zealander has suffered a shaky start to his Red Bull career and was one second slower than teammate Verstappen in Q1. Red Bull team principal Christian Horner defended his new driver, insisting “you can’t judge him on today’s performance”.

It was a display which was reminiscent of Sergio Perez’s qualifying woes throughout 2024 and despite the defence from Horner, Lawson cannot afford too many repeat performances.

Winner - Yuki Tsunoda

Meanwhile, the driver who was overlooked for a Red Bull seat this year, Tsunoda, was one of the stars of qualifying.

Tsunoda produced a “magic” last-gasp lap to grab a surprise place on the third row in fifth for Racing Bulls, having outpaced both Ferraris.

It was a hugely impressive performance from the 24-year-old Japanese racer and served as a reminder to Red Bull of what he is capable of on a day their new number two had a bit of a shocker.

Loser - Kimi Antonelli

Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli was eliminated from Q1 in Australia and will start the race from down in 16th position on the grid.

It emerged after his shock early exit that Antonelli had picked up damage on his car, which was seen sparking and running incredibly close to the ground at the end of the first part of qualifying. Mercedes confirmed Antonelli damaged the bib on the floor of his W16 which resulted in a loss of performance.

A disappointing debut for the highly-rated 18-year-old, especially with teammate Russell able to put his Mercedes fourth.

Winner - Williams

Williams come away from qualifying as one of the big winners, with both their cars reaching Q3.

Albon starred in qualifying with a brilliant lap to take sixth ahead of Leclerc and Hamilton’s Ferraris, while new teammate Carlos Sainz also secured a top-10 starting spot with the 10th quickest time.

The performance shows the gains Williams have made over the winter with their improved FW47. The Grove-based squad can already think about a double points finish straight off the bat.

Loser - Oliver Bearman

It has been nothing short of a disastrous start to his rookie F1 season for Oliver Bearman, who is having a weekend to forget in Australia.

A heavy crash in FP1 forced Bearman to sit out of FP2, before he missed more crucial track time when he beached his Haas in the gravel right at the start of final practice on Saturday morning.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the 18-year-old Briton did not even complete a lap in qualifying after reporting a gearbox problem on his out lap - leaving him 20th and last.

After several super-sub cameos for Ferrari and Haas last year, Bearman’s full-time introduction to F1 has been a brutal baptism of fire so far.

Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto

Gabriel Bortoleto was the only one of F1’s six rookies to out-qualify their teammate on their debut in Melbourne.

The reigning Formula 2 champion came into the weekend vowing to prove his doubters wrong after being branded as a “B driver” by Red Bull’s Helmut Marko, and he certainly got off to a positive start in his first ever F1 qualifying session.

Bortoleto did his talking on the track by edging out his vastly experienced Sauber teammate Nico Hulkenberg and advancing into Q2 on his way to a very respectable 15th on the grid.

Loser - Aston Martin

It was a disappointing first qualifying of the season for Aston Martin, who appear to starting 2025 in a worse shape than 12 months ago.

Fernando Alonso actually showed flashes of encouraging pace in Q1 but ultimately could not reach the top-10, having picked up costly floor damage when he ran wide on his Q2 lap. Teammate Lance Stroll joined him on the sidelines for Q3 having been dumped out in 13th.

It turned out to be a bit of a missed opportunity for Aston Martin, who had the potential to qualifier higher up the grid.