Winner – Max Verstappen

Perhaps the most obvious winner from the qualifying session is the polesitter, Max Verstappen. But achieving this wasn’t a walk in the park for Verstappen as another tantalisingly close qualifying session saw him push the RB21 to its limits around the Jeddah Corniche circuit, exchanging blows with the McLarens throughout the session as they traded session-topping times.

Ultimately, Verstappen’s pole lap put him just 0.010s ahead of Piastri in P2, showing just how brutally close it was between the two drivers. The pole is Max’s second of the season and second at this track, and it clearly meant a lot to him as indicated by his post-qualifying radio celebration: “Ah yes! My god guys, simply lovely that!”

A bold and risky strategy from Red Bull in the final stages of Q3 to allow Verstappen two back to back runs meant the pressure was on him to deliver. But even with enough fuel for two laps on board, his first run saw him go quickest which piled the pressure back on his rivals.

In the absence of any more yellow or red flags Red Bull’s risky strategy had paid off, with Christian Horner describing Max’s last lap on the new soft tyres as “outstanding”. “To get that pole, our second in the last three races, is phenomenal and really rewarding,” he said.

Loser – Lando Norris

It was a “disappointing” day for Lando Norris in Jeddah, after a what could be championship battle defining crash cost him a chance to fight for pole.

Norris began the qualifying session showing promising pace, but his session came to an end shortly after the start of Q3 when he caught the kerb at the exit of Turn 4 causing instability of the car that sent him into the barrier.

Speaking on the incident, Lando said, “It’s been such a smooth, positive weekend so far, so we’re disappointed to have such a big setback but I’ve got to take it on the chin.”

“I apologised to the team, to my mechanics and the engineers and try and go again tomorrow. The car’s quick, the car’s been good all weekend so have to think hard to overtake the cars tomorrow.”

The crash is another setback in Norris’ championship campaign, and will be especially brutal given his that teammate and championship rival, Oscar Piastri, will line up on the grid in P2 tomorrow. He’ll have work to do to recover starting from P10, but Jeddah is a track that always throws up chances and unknowns so this should give Norris hope heading into the grand prix.

Winner – Carlos Sainz

Carlos Sainz delivered his strongest qualifying yet for Williams, securing P6 on the grid for Sunday’s grand prix, which also happens to be the highest a Williams car has started so far in 2025.

Over the team radio, Carlos said, “let’s do tomorrow what we didn’t do in Bahrain”, referencing his DNF at the previous race. But he will also be looking to capitalise on this highest qualifying position so far and translate it into a big points haul to help boost his tally and of course that of the team.

Their big points earner so far, Alex Albon, was unlucky not to make Q3 after missing out by just 0.007s. Albon described this as “frustrating because we should have been in the top ten quite comfortably”, and ultimately it seemed to come down to the team trying an alternate run plan for Albon by sending him out onto a quiet track.

Unfortunately this meant he missed out on the track in its best condition in Q2 but also on the chance for a tow, which he felt was important here.

Even so, the chance at having two cars in Q3 in the first place demonstrates the huge improvement Williams have made on last year, and James Vowles feels they have “two cars that can score points” tomorrow.

Losers – Kick Sauber

Qualifying was a challenging session for both of the Kick Sauber drivers. Nico Hulkenberg looked as though he had the pace to make it into Q2, but a lock-up into turn 1 during his final Q1 run meant he could not improve on his time and he was eliminated in P18. He described it as “not ideal” but said there is opportunity to move forward with “a bit of action ahead of us and a smart strategy.”

Gabriel Bortoleto’s session was equally as poor, as a tough weekend continued for the Brazilian driver. He caught a plastic bag on his second qualifying run, forcing an unscheduled pitstop which only placed extra pressure on the rookie. A spin in turn 1 on his final push lap was the nail in the coffin for Bortoleto, and he was eliminated in P20. It’s been a difficult weekend for him to this point anyway, as a fuel leak issue saw him miss valuable track time in FP2 at a circuit where confidence and building up the laps is vital.

Sauber’s team principal, Jonathan Wheatley, said their aim is to “rebuild, get stronger, learn from what happened and get ready to challenge tomorrow.”

Winner – Liam Lawson

Since being demoted to the VCARB team, Liam Lawson has struggled to make an impact, until today. His teammate, Isack Hadjar, had out-qualified him at every grand prix this year whilst also earning valuable championship points along the way – something Lawson is still yet to reach this year.

But after the “best lap [he’s] done all weekend”, Lawson has secured a P12 start for tomorrow’s grand prix, and out-qualified Hadjar too. But there was a veil of frustration around this result as he was just one tenth off a place in Q3 and the chance at a top ten start.

Despite this, points could be very much on the table for the New Zealander and he’s aiming to “try and create as many opportunities as possible” to make this happen.

The performance comes just a day after Racing Bulls’ CEO, Peter Bayer, said that Lawson was “returning to being the old Liam” following his demotion, and this certainly looks the first signs of this being the case on track.

Loser – Lance Stroll

After a stronger start to his 2025 campaign in Australia and China, Lance Stroll now finds himself in a bit of a rough patch. He failed to make it out of Q1 for the third race in a row with today’s early exit also marking his 75th Q1 elimination, setting an unfortunate new record.

He’s now the driver with most Q1 eliminations in Formula 1 history, overtaking the previous holder Kevin Magnussen.

Even with this unfortunate record, Stroll felt qualifying was their “most competitive session this weekend so far” yet his time was only good enough for P16 as he lacked the pace to advance into Q2.

Andy Cowell, Aston Martin’s team principal, felt that the team had suffered as a result of the field being so tight, meaning their work to unlock performance heading into the session couldn’t pay off.

“There is a long race ahead of us tomorrow,” he said. “We will come out ready to take any opportunity to progress and compete for points.”