Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Imola 2025
STARTING GRID:
1) PIASTRI 2) VERSTAPPEN 3) RUSSELL 4) NORRIS 5) ALONSO 6) SAINZ 7) ALBON 8) STROLL 9) HADJAR 10) GASLY 11) LECLERC 12) HAMILTON 13) ANTONELLI 14) BORTOLETO 15) LAWSON 16) COLAPINTO 17) HULKENBERG 18) OCON 19) BEARMAN 20) TSUNODA
LAP 1: Into the first corner, Pistari looked to have got a good start as well as Russell. Out of nowhere came a late braking Mx Verstappen as she swooped round the outside of Piastri. He took the inside line going into turn 2 and took the lead, a fantastic move from the Dutch driver.
The rest of the top 10 remained the same apart from Hadjar who lost 2 places down to 11th as Gasly and Leclerc moved ahead of him. Just behind, Antonelli got past Hamilton to move to 12th place. The only other movers were Ocon and Colapinto as Ocon took 15th with the nightmare start to Colapinto’s career continuing. After a crash that wiped out his car and got him through to Q2 by the skin of his teeth, he lost 2 points on the opening lap of the race.
LAP 9: Lando Norris tried to overtake George Russell at the start of the lap but a good defence from Russell kept him at bay. Even being side by side at the Villeneuve Chicane Russell managed to keep his car in the right place and had the pace to keep Norris behind him for the time being.
LAP 11: After 3 laps of trying to overtake Lando Norris got close enough to edge past Russell. Once again they battled at the start of the lap and into the Villeneuve Chicane where Norris made his way around the outside of the Mercedes to move into the podium places.
LAP 17: Following an unusually slower pit stop, Piastri found himself behind Yuki Tsunoda. The second Red Bull driver was told by the team to “do your best to hold him up”. The team orders were clear to Tsunoda in order to do his bit for the team to be successful today.
However, going into the start of lap 18 Piastri got a boost from DRS and was hot on the heels of Tsunoda going into the first corner. He pulled off a move similar to Verstappen on lap 1 as he went round the outside and out braked Tsunoda to move past him and not lose much time at all.
LAP 21: Charles Leclerc was the next driver to get past Yuki Tsunoda into the first corner. Another move round the outside gave Charles the position as he moved to P11. Also there was talk of strategy from Carlos Sainz and the Williams team as they told him Alex Albon times. In which he responded by saying “Ah, it’s clearly a 1 stop then.”
LAP 26: Another great move from Piastri as he swooped round the outside of Lewis Hamilton to move up to 6th. He went round the 7 time World Champion with ease as he seemed to have complete control and confidence. He was then able to focus on Antonelli who was just over 0.5 seconds away from him. In which, he is able to get past him on the next lap into the same first corner.
LAP 29: Yellow flags are waved as Esteban Ocon is told to “stop the car, we have an issue” and had to pull over at the side of the road. The FIA decided on a Virtual Safety Car in order to get the car off the track in the safest possible way.
This played perfectly into the hands of Red Bull as they told Max Verstappen to box for new tires. With the loss of time for a pit stop under a VSC almost half of the time that it would be for a standard pit stop.
The McLaren of Piastri decided to pit again but another slower stop did not help the Aussie driver as he dropped behind Alex Albon into 4th place.
LAP 34: Replays showed that Carlos Sainz got past Yuki Tsunoda at the same place of turn 1. A possibly frustrated Tsunoda tried to defend the place right to the last second to the point that he seemed to touch the Williams car. Sainz was quick on the radio to complain as he felt Tsunoda did the same thing in Bahrain and was clearly not very happy.
On the same lap and place on the circuit, Lewis Hamilton finally managed to get past Antonelli to move into 6th. He seemed to have great confidence in the car today as he continued his pursuit as he looked to close in on Isaac Hadjar.
LAP 36: Just 2 laps later, Hamilton managed to get past Hadjar into the first corner with an effortless overtake round the outside of turn 1. The most popular place for overtakes seemed to be the first corner after the long pit straight. Both Ferraris seemed to have good pace, which was welcomed in front of their first home fans of the season.
LAP 39: The battle for the last points place continued with Niko Hulkenberg using the DRS on the pit straight to get past Fernando Alonso into 10th. Carlos Sainz was just over 0.5 seconds away from Alonso as he looked to get into the points himself, lurking in the mirrors of the Aston Martin biding his time.
LAP 40: After closing in on Alex Albon in the final podium place, Oscar Piastri blasted past to take 3rd. A battle in which was not on for Albon to put up much of a fight for as in the long run would not have been his race. A great stint on the hard tyres for Albon means he is still nearly 10 seconds ahead of the next car in Lewis Hamilton in 4th.
LAP 46: Kimi Antonelli was going slow and pulling over as he reported “I got an issue!” on the team radio. In an area which seemed to be similar to where Ocon stopped earlier in the race.
This time a full Safety Car was deployed, contrast to the Virtual Safety Car from earlier in the race. This was most likely due to it taking longer and more equipment needed to remove the car from the track than it took for the Haas earlier in the race.
A welcome Safety Car from Red Bull and Max Verstappen, who was able to pit again and retain his lead due to the reduced amount of time used for a pit stop under a Safety Car. That combined with another slow stop for Lando Norris by the McLaren pit crew played even more into the hands of Red Bull.
LAP 50: Lando Norris was on the team radio giving his opinions on what to do on the restart to the pit wall. He seemed to indicate that Piastri (who was ahead in 2nd at this point) had tyres that weren’t in good condition. So he said to his team about the possibility of winning the race and seemed to indicate that he may be the better option on the fresher tyres to challenge Verstappen.
LAP 53: The race got going again with another excellent restart from Max Verstappen. Oscar Piastri had to worry about Lando Norris in his mirrors more than Verstappen ahead of him. The same could then be said for Norris as he had to look out for Charles Leclerc in a fast Ferrari behind him.
LAP 58: Despite being teammates, the McLaren duo were side by side going into the first corner. Lando Norrris flew round the outside with a brave move and went on the inside into turn 2 and got the move done on the first time of asking. A great move from the Brit as he moved into 2nd to try and get close to Verstappen who was already over 5 seconds ahead.
LAP 60: The Williams of Alex Albon was still in the mix between the two Ferraris in 5th place. He had the pace and was trying to get past Leclerc for multiple laps before he tried to go round the outside into turn 1. He then tried to take the inside line going into turn 2 but ran out of room and had to cut across the gravel.
Unluckily for Albon Lewis Hamilton was just behind and took advantage of Albon’s venture in the gravel and took the place to move into P5 himself. A massive cheer from the Tifosi as both Ferrari went into the top 5.
Alex Albon was quick on the radio to say “that wasn’t fair”, with an investigation into the incident quickly underway by Race Control. However, in the laps that followed Leclerc was overtaken by Hamilton and told to give the place back to Albon which he did.
LAP 63: Max Verstappen took the chequered flag to win the Imola Grand Prix! A margin of over 6 seconds to the nearest car, that being Lando Norris in the McLaren in a comfortable victory for the Dutch driver. Oscar Piastri brought it home in the final podium place, with another great points haul for McLaren in the Constructors standings.
A good day for Ferrari in front of the Tifosi for the first time this season as they finished in P4 and P6. This was much to the dislike of Leclerc who thought he should have finished in 5th as he thought he defended well against Albon.
A great drive from Albon and Sainz in the Williams with another double points finish for them as they continue their good start to the season. The Mercedes of George Russell finished in 7th place, in which he could have been joined by his teammate if it was for the issue he had during the race.
The last of the top 10 was finished by Isaac Hadjar in one of the Racing Bulls in P9, as he got the better of the second Red Bull in Yuki Tsunoda in 10th. Another underwhelming performance from Max Verstappen’s teammate as he won the race but his teammate could not get near the front of the field.
RACE RESULT:
1) VERTSTAPPEN 2) NORRIS 3) PIASTRI 4) HAMILTON 5) ALBON 6) LECLERC 7) RUSSELL 8) SAINZ 9) HADJAR 10) TSUNODA 11) ALONSO 12) HULKENBERG 13) GASLY 14) LAWSON 15) STROLL 16) COLAPINTO 17) BEARMAN 18) BORTOLETO 19) ANTONELLI (DNF) 20) OCON (DNF)
