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Nine of the 20 drivers lining up on the Formula 1 grid in 2025 have set pole position for an F1 grand prix.
Lewis Hamilton tops the list for the most pole positions of any individual driver in F1 history, and has almost as many to his name as the other eight drivers on this list combined!
Here we detail how many pole positions each 2025 F1 driver has and where they rank on F1's all-time list.
In 2021, pole position for three of the grands prix that year were awarded to the winner of the Saturday sprint race, rather than the driver who set fastest time in the Friday qualifying session, and our numbers reflect this anomaly.
Under the traditional system, Hamilton would gain two pole positions and Max Verstappen would lose two, while Valtteri Bottas would gain one (for qualifying fastest in Italy before taking a grid penalty) but also lose one (to Hamilton in Brazil).
This list will be updated throughout the 2025 F1 season
LEWIS HAMILTON - 104 POLES
#1 all-time
Hamilton broke Michael Schumacher's long-standing pole position record at the 2017 Italian Grand Prix, where Hamilton took his 69th F1 pole.
He's since gone on to set 35 more, so is by far F1's most successful qualifier.
Mercedes' domination of F1's hybrid-engined era has helped, with Hamilton racking up 71 of his poles between 2014 and 2021.
He's only had one other since the end of that period, coming at the 2023 Hungarian GP where he beat Verstappen to the fastest time by just 0.003 seconds.
MAX VERSTAPPEN - 40 POLES
#5 all-time
At just 27 Max Verstappen is already fifth on the all-time polesitters list. He's got to get 17 more to match fellow four-time Red Bull world champion Sebastian Vettel.
CHARLES LECLERC - 26 POLES
=#11 all-time
Charles Leclerc has set more pole positions than any F1 driver without a world championship to their name.
Leclerc deservedly holds a reputation for being perhaps the fastest driver in F1 right now over a single lap. If the car is set to his liking and not limited by understeer, Leclerc is capable of devastating qualifying performances that few, if any, can match.
FERNANDO ALONSO - 22 POLES
#15 all-time
Fernando Alonso isn't renowned as a qualifying specialist. Even in his championship-winning F1 seasons (2005-06) he never scored more than six poles in each of them.
His most recent came well over a decade ago - at the 2012 German Grand Prix for Ferrari.
He's come close a few times though, particularly so at the 2023 Monaco GP for Aston Martin - where Alonso was just 0.084s slower than Verstappen in Q3.
LANDO NORRIS - 9 POLES
#37 all-time
Norris's first pole came in the wet in what, for now, remains the final Russian Grand Prix, in 2021, a race Norris came within one botched tyre call of winning.
The 2024 season has been fruitful, with Norris's ninth pole coming in the season finale in Abu Dhabi.
CARLOS SAINZ - 6 POLES
=#42 all-time
All six of Carlos Sainz's F1 poles came during his four-year stint at Ferrari.
GEORGE RUSSELL - 5 POLES
=#49 all-time
George Russell's qualifying day of days came at the 2022 Hungarian Grand Prix, where he narrowly beat Sainz to pole in a session Lewis Hamilton could only manage the seventh-fastest time in. Ironically the same Russell-Hamilton order for Russell's second pole at the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix.
Russell and Hamilton locking out the front row at the 2024 British Grand Prix broke that trend as Russell claimed his third career F1 pole, adding Vegas and Qatar afterwards to take his total to five.
NICO HULKENBERG - 1 POLE
=#75 all-time
Nico Hulkenberg is one of two 'one-hit-wonders' on this list, claiming the sole pole position of his F1 career during his 2010 rookie season with Williams.
Hulkenberg was one of the most highly-rated talents in the junior categories before Williams promoted him to F1 as team-mate to Brazilian veteran Rubens Barrichello.
By the second half of the season, Hulkenberg had overtaken the 11-time race winner to become Williams' quickest driver.
Hulkenberg's pole came at Interlagos - he's always been especially handy around that track - in mixed conditions, but was no fluke.
On slicks on a damp circuit, Hulkenberg actually set two laps good enough to beat the Red Bulls and impressively finished the session over a second clear of both Vettel and Mark Webber.
LANCE STROLL - 1 POLE
=#75 all-time
The first, and so far only, pole position of Lance Stroll's F1 career came during the pandemic-shortened 2020 season - at the Turkish Grand Prix.
The track was resurfaced ahead of F1's first visit to Istanbul since 2011, and the extraordinary lack of grip in difficult conditions played havoc with everyone.
Stroll came good in a topsy-turvy Q3 session to bag pole, but faded to ninth in a race that Racing Point team-mate Perez finished second to Hamilton in.
Stroll is capable of flashes of brilliance such as this. During his rookie F1 season with Williams in 2017, Stroll qualified fourth at Monza in the wet - only just behind the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo, and a whopping 1.2s quicker than team-mate Felipe Massa.
Jack Doohan, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Ollie Bearman, Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto, Isack Hadjar, Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson, Alex Albon and Oscar Piastri - 0 poles.
