2025 United States Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
Oct 19
2 min read

After a chaotic Sprint earlier in the day, the focus now shifted to Qualifying to set the Grid for the 2025 United States Grand Prix!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Gabriel Bortoleto, Esteban Ocon, Lance Stroll, Alex Albon, and Isack Hadjar were the five slowest drivers! Gabriel Bortoleto will be really disappointed with his Qualifying performances this weekend, whilst Esteban Ocon’s Qualifying struggles show no signs of stopping! Lance Stroll did have a lap good enough to make it through to Q2, but that lap was ultimately deleted for track limits, and the exact same thing happened to Alex Albon, a really disappointing day for the Williams driver! And speaking of disappointing, Isack Hadjar shunted himself to the back of the Grid, a rare mistake from the Rookie of the Season! Max Verstappen topped Q1, just a tenth clear of George Russell in the Mercedes!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Nic Hulkenberg, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, Pierre Gasly, and Franco Colapinto all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! Nico Hulkenberg will be kicking himself for a mistake at the penultimate corner, costing himself a spot in Q3, whilst Liam Lawson managed to out-qualify a disappointed Yuki Tsunoda! Alpine had their best day in a while, too, with Pierre Gasly 4 tenths clear of Franco Colapinto in 14th and 15th respectively! Verstappen once again topped a session, this time ahead of the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a dominant 1:32.510 was enough for Max Verstappen to take his second Pole Position of the weekend! Max didn’t even make the line for his final run, and yet he still got Pole by nearly 3 tenths, that’s insane! Lando Norris could only manage second for McLaren, just 6 thousandths of a second quicker than Charles Leclerc (who did a great job to take third), whilst George Russell will start P4, only a further 19 thousandths back! Lewis Hamilton will start 5th in the other Ferrari, ahead of Oscar Piastri, who had a horrible day, whilst Andrea Kimi Antonelli slotted into 7th! In the battle for best of the rest, it was Oliver Bearman who brilliantly won out, just pipping Carlos Sainz to 9th, whilst Fernando Alonso rounded out the top 10 (all three drivers were separated by just 21 thousandths)!