Winners and losers from Mexican Grand Prix F1 qualifying 2026

A dramatic Mexican Grand Prix Formula 1 qualifying session left us scrabbling for enough ‘winners’ for our regular winner and losers list - with only a few people overperforming and plenty ruing missed chances.

Winner: Lewis Hamilton (Pole)

Lewis Hamilton always had faith that Ferrari had a car in Mexico that could take pole position – but knew that delivering it would be another matter.

So after a 2026 season where time and again Ferrari has failed to nail those final laps in Q3, Hamilton was clearly overjoyed to have delivered his first grand prix pole for the Prancing Horse.

It also made the 41-year-old F1’s oldest polesitter since Mario Andretti took that famous top spot at Monza in 1982 aged 42.

Hamilton said the key to performing today was getting the tyres working and nailing the balance perfectly throughout the lap – as the shifting temperatures of the fronts and rears altered performance all around the circuit.

Hamilton likened nailing that balance to “finding a needle in a haystack” – which is why he reckoned being millimetre perfect was essential for him to have pulled off his pole feat. - Jon Noble

Loser: Fernando Alonso (18th)

Precious few weekends have promised much at all for Fernando Alonso this season. Mexico, relatively speaking, did: 12th in FP2, 14th in FP3.

It’s about as good as it’s got for the Aston Martin driver as Honda seemed to be managing the unique Mexico challenge well. Alonso even had the brief joy of briefly going quickest after almost half the grid had set a laptime in Q1!

But it nosedived quickly as Alonso never made it back to the pits after that lap. He was ordered to park up immediately – an instruction that baffled and infuriated Alonso as he was already into the stadium section, so the pitlane was very close at hand – and took no further part in Q1.

Even Alonso admitted it was unlikely he was Q3-bound. Still, he said he was optimistic. And yet: “We lost a big opportunity. So, yeah, the frustration is beyond imagination, but this is the story of the year.”

Of course, there was still another Aston Martin that could have picked up the pieces. But Lance Stroll instead suffered another Q1 exit, almost two tenths of a second slower than Alonso despite completing all of the opening segment. - Scott Mitchell-Malm

Loser: Max Verstappen (4th)

A purple sector one just as pole favourite Charles Leclerc was messing up his final lap hinted that Max Verstappen might come back from an unhappy Friday to top qualifying - even if his penalty meant he wouldn't actually start from pole.

He was sanguine about the mild traffic disturbance from Lando Norris that led to his pole shot going awry, and much happier with the car than he had been at any point in practice. And that made him convinced he was "in the fight for pole".

Instead - thanks to the events of yesterday and today - he was fourth fastest and he'll only start fifth, from where winning will be far, far harder. - Matt Beer

Winner: George Russell (2nd)

George Russell was delighted to have hauled his Mercedes up to the front row after a challenging weekend so far in Mexico, but at a loss to explain where it had come from.

Having not produced a single lap all weekend that looked like it was going to worry rivals, Russell’s gut feel in abandoning a plan for a prep lap and instead gunning it straight away paid off handsomely.

But it also left him ruing the extra lap of fuel that he unnecessarily carried – which he said was worth well more than the 0.009 seconds difference to pole position man Hamilton.

He said the Mexico showing epitomised a season for him that has been a tale of great highs and great lows.

“I’m never doing an average lap – it’s either a terrible lap or a strong lap,” he said. “It’s frustrating…” - JN

Loser: Kimi Antonelli (5th)

He's about to become F1 world champion at the age of 20, in only his second season on the grid, and having gone into the year as a firm underdog against a much more experienced team-mate and having not really lived up to (sky high) expectations in his rookie season.

So, to a degree, who really cares or will remember where Kimi Antonelli actually qualifies and finishes in the Mexican GP?

But given how extraordinary his season has been, it's sad to see the clearly unwell championship leader not really in contention at Mexico City so far.

A title run this sensational deserves to be clinched from the podium, and right now that looks unlikely. - MB

Loser: Racing Bulls (8th & 9th - but one DSQ)

Having ended qualifying eighth and ninth, once again firmly best of the rest behind the top four and ahead of a McLaren, and with the only effect of Liam Lawson’s grid penalty seemingly just swapping the order of its cars around, Racing Bulls was initially a candidate for the winners’ column here.

Then Lawson was thrown to the back of the grid for an MGU-K infringement, and it became clear that Arvid Lindblad felt they had the car to do far better than they actually did.

Though ninth in Q3 seemed good for Lindblad, he’d been as high as second for some of Q2.

And some extremely short answers in his post-session media pen pointed to Lindblad actually being extremely unhappy with his performance.

"Today we had a car to race with the top teams, and I didn't do that job, so it's very upsetting," he said, going on to describe his driving as "not good enough".

Those who have listened carefully to Lindblad this year will know he can be extremely hard on himself. It's easy to see why he is frustrated, even if the reaction feels slightly over the top given how high up the grid he’s still starting. - Jack Benyon

Loser: Oscar Piastri (13th)

Oscar Piastri was the biggest shock in qualifying as the McLaren driver failed to even make it into Q3. It wasn’t even close.

A poor banker, and aborted initial stab at a second run, left Piastri with a lot to do on his final Q2 lap. The car was easily quick enough to get through even with a slow-ish lap. Piastri’s problem was his lap was just plain slow. 

He struggled with rear grip, and was visibly over-cautious in the middle sector, on his way to a lap 0.3s away from the top 10 and 0.9s slower than his Q2-topping team-mate Norris. 

This is not a stellar Piastri track, or one he particularly likes, but this is especially poor even for a driver who has not had the best of 2026s.

McLaren’s qualifying then had an anti-climactic finish as Norris, who was flirting with getting involved in the pole fight throughout, had an underwhelming Q3 and aborted his final lap - so finished only sixth-fastest. - SMM

Loser: Haas (15th & 19th)

One car slowest in Q2, one car out in Q1 – this was a mediocre enough set of results on paper for Haas but a worse situation in the wider 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 best lap - running wide at Turn 12 into the stadium section, costing time and then the lap entirely as it was a track limits violation. 

The bang of the wheel in frustration and apologies (plural) over the radio say everything. 

As for stand-in Ryo Hirakawa, his qualifying debut was solid. The first two runs in Q1 were three tenths off Bearman, but it got away from him at the end as he failed to improve in the middle sector - so the final gap was exaggerated. 

It was decent enough for him, but for Haas as a whole, managing this sudden situation with Esteban Ocon’s shock mid-weekend exit is a case of trying to make the best of a bad situation - and Saturday has been a bad situation. 

All the while Audi lurks as an imminent threat for seventh in the constructors’ championship, and now has a car in the top 10 thanks to Lawson’s demotion. - SMM