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# Winners and losers from F1's 2026 United States Grand Prix
- URL: https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/winners-and-losers-from-f1s-2026-united-states-grand-prix/
- Published: 2026-10-26T00:26:10.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-26T00:54:51.000Z
- Description: Our winners and losers from F1's United States Grand Prix at the Circuit of the Americas
- Author: Jack Cozens
- Tags: Formula 1, #united-states-grand-prix, #primary_homepage_feature, #image-center-left

Winners and losers from F1's 2026 United States Grand Prix

All eyes were on if Formula 1 would have a new youngest ever champion after the United States Grand Prix, and it won't - yet - but that was not for a lack of a [stellar performance](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/antonelli-on-the-brink-of-first-f1-title-after-crushing-us-gp-win/) from runaway points leader Kimi Antonelli.

Naturally, the wait to see if we'd have a new champion distracted from action through the rest of the field. So here's our pick of winners and losers up and down the grid on Sunday at the Circuit of the Americas.

## Winner: Kimi Antonelli (1st)

For all the consideration of whether Mercedes's rivals messed their US GP strategies up, the counterargument says the Mercedes-Antonelli combination was just too good on the day at Austin.

And it certainly served to banish a great deal of doubt about the effectiveness of the Mercedes upgrade, following its inconclusive start to life at Sepang and in Singapore.

It's remarkable to think that the previous triple-header marked Antonelli's joint-longest run of the season without victory. It's also remarkable how routine the sight of him winning has become in only his second year in F1.

The title surely awaits in Mexico. **\- Jack Cozens**

## Loser: George Russell (8th)

Having cut a particularly frustrated figure in the media pen, two Russell quotes stand out in summing up just how painful his Sunday was.

"Six good laps, 50 bad laps," he said, when asked by The Race what had compromised his race, while he also told Sky Sports F1: "The pace just was rubbish."

The five-second penalty (which Russell did call "a bit ridiculous" but added "was the least of my worries after such a bad weekend") was race-defining, in the sense that he felt it was after that pitstop that he produced the "six good laps" before catching Piastri and getting stuck behind the McLaren.

Just what is going on, we don't know - and nor does Russell. But that optimism he had that he'd turned a corner seems to have dried up quickly. **\- JC**

## Winner: Lando Norris (5th)

Another brilliant stealthy drive from Norris in a season where he's turned in a few of them, here turning an awful qualifying into a respectable race result.

The fact McLaren instructed Oscar Piastri to let Norris past early on seemed to reflect how much more Norris has been able to extract from this difficult car when he's able to sit it on the knife edge both drivers have complained about all weekend.

Allied to a medium/hard tyre strategy that was clearly far more effective than the soft-biased strategies favoured by Ferrari and Red Bull, Norris even had a cameo in second place at one stage.

He was never going to be able to hold off the Ferraris or Max Verstappen, as he feels he's having to drive way beyond what's sensible to get the car into that situation in the first place, but to be even in the mix with those cars temporarily - as well as beating upper-order strugglers like Isack Hadjar and Russell - looked like a stealth driver-of-the-day overperformance from the soon-to-be-deposed reigning world champion. **\- Ben Anderson**

## Loser: Red Bull (3rd & 6th)

Considering how strong both drivers were in qualifying here, and the recent supreme form of Verstappen in particular, this was a disappointing race for Red Bull.

The first lap was terrible for both cars - the engine didn't appear to be delivering its power properly and consistently, and they seemed to struggle towards the end of each stint regardless of which tyre compound was fitted.

Verstappen coped better and hung on for a podium finish - and his passes on Charles Leclerc and Norris were feisty - but he was clearly unhappy with the car's behaviour and will be disappointed to have finished so far behind Antonelli's Mercedes.

Team-mate Hadjar was clearly very dejected post-race, having seen a career-best qualifying performance turn into a feeble regression to sixth in the race.

He declared Red Bull's "fragile" clutch "needs a redesign" after a poor start in which he insisted he did "everything right" from the cockpit.

That plus radio problems that left both drivers struggling to hear the team meant Hadjar left the pits with the wrong engine map selected and then lost "one second per lap" on the hard tyre, which only added to his fury.

Red Bull has been the best version of itself in recent races; it wasn't at that level here, and now has the added problem of dealing with a driver who clearly feels let down by his car and by extension his team. **\- BA**

## Winner: Charles Leclerc (2nd)

Ferrari's important Austin upgrade delivered and, had the Scuderia repeated the qualifying pace it had enjoyed in previous races, Leclerc could have won.

Leclerc was surprised that race winner Antonelli executed a one-stopper, saying it was "always a two-stop" on paper for Ferrari and Red Bull, too.

The team was strong throughout practice but, as Leclerc recounted, it lost its shot at victory in qualifying having struggled to bring the tyres up to temperature.

Having outscored Verstappen by three points, Leclerc is just three behind in the chase for fourth in the drivers' standings - and just eight points behind third-placed team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

Hamilton isn't a loser here but struggled in contrast to Leclerc, having said after the race that he was scrambling for set-up tweaks throughout practice and was making further front wing tweaks throughout the race to dial out understeer.

With Hamilton fourth place, Ferrari outscored the competition at Austin, taking 30 points to Red Bull's 23 and Mercedes' 29\. **\- Samarth Kanal**

## Loser: Fernando Alonso (16th)

Would Alonso's Aston Martin genuinely have been a contender for points in the US GP, as he claims, without getting swiped by Alex Albon on the first lap?

It seems more likely to be a bit of hyperbole than a realistic claim, but the way Alonso's pace stood up despite having, in his words, "half a car" thanks to bargeboard damage did suggest he was on for a good result.

Even with damage it was going pretty well - as 12th or 13th place looked possible before a slow second pitstop, where Alonso considered retiring the car ("I was ready to switch it off") before the front wing was changed, allowing him to engage in battle with Albon once more before the finish.

This was definitely more encouraging than a 16th-place finish suggests; whether it was "by far" the best race of the season is hard to judge considering the way his Sunday unfolded, but this was a strong performance from Alonso.

It's a shame that's been tainted by some slightly understandable but ultimately over-the-top [criticism aimed at Albon](https://www.the-race.com/formula-1/alonso-slams-low-quality-albon-for-us-gp/). **\- JC**

## Winner: Liam Lawson (9th)

Lawson's third-straight points-scoring weekend has put him firmly in best of the rest territory, ninth in the championship, 28 points behind Red Bull's Hadjar and 35 points ahead of Pierre Gasly.

He hailed a "strong weekend", and it was, as he started where he finished.

Racing Bulls brought some more upgrades to Austin and Lawson said the car was "so good the whole way" on the radio post race - before laughing off team principal Alan Permane's comment that he should do another gig before the Mexican GP, having performed in Austin on Thursday evening.

The only blip he recounted was a loud and unrelenting beep from the system telling him he was going faster than the VSC delta time - when he was actually six seconds to the positive.

A solid weekend with no flashpoints, in stark contrast to his Red Bull rival Hadjar. **\- SK**

## Loser: Ollie Bearman (DNF)

Bearman was frustrated after taking damage in a lap-two skirmish with Gasly that later caused him to retire his Haas, with a 10-second penalty to make it sting.

The Haas driver went down the inside of the Alpine into Turn 13 and made contact, and was judged to have caused a collision, but Bearman disagreed with the penalty.

He said Gasly saw his car, having left space, "but it didn't really feel like enough".

He added: "In my view it was a racing incident, I sent a move, OK, but I felt like I was entitled to a bit more space than I got. I didn't lose control. I had to even climb up onto the kerb to try and avoid the contact because I didn't feel like I was given enough space."

Bearman doubled down and said: "I don't regret going for the move because to be honest at this stage if you don't do something special and get a bit lucky and go for it, then we're not going to score points because we're not fast enough on merit."

Despite the contact seeming slight, the damage was costing him one second per lap and Bearman ended up retiring halfway through the race. **\- SK**

## Winner: Pierre Gasly (10th)

Given he'd lost somewhere around 10 points of downforce in the collision Bearman received a 10-second penalty for, scoring a point was a great success for Gasly at Austin.

OK, It was more points lost to Racing Bulls in the fight for fifth in the constructors' championship. But Gasly was in the fight and without the contact and an issue at his pitstop, he could have fought for ninth with Lawson, who eventually finished just over seven seconds ahead.

"I would have liked to see what would have been possible against Liam, without the damage," Gasly said. "We'll never know." **\- Jack Benyon**