Red Bull and Max Verstappen gave themselves wings on their 400th race and upset the McLaren party at Imola with a dominant win after a bold first lap move unseated pole sitter Oscar Piastri. Talking of partying our 2025 Emilia-Romagna F1 Grand Prix Result Summary is going back to 1999 to check the comparison for partying.
This 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings which gives you just enough to catch up with. With just a hint of cynicism, bias, opinion and colour. The perfect bite sized review for those who couldn’t be bothered, or don’t have enough time.
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2025 Emilia-Romagna F1 Grand Prix Result Race Summary
Didn’t see the race live? Don’t have time to watch the whole race? Here’s where we capture the laps where stuff happened. We write these live as we go, sort of like a minute by minute for the football, but marginally more interesting.
Setting the scene – Oscar Piastri takes pole position ahead of Max Verstappen but it looked like it could either way throughout the qualifying sessions. Lando Norris again can’t quite match his team mate in fourth, with George Russell doing his usual stealth job to get in Norris’ way for third. An all Spanish third row is more of a surprise for Fernando Alonso than Carlos Sainz. Isack Hadjar is top rookie in 9th, Kimi Antonelli is 13th. On home soil the Ferrari look hopeless and both drivers miss Q3 and out qualified by Aston Martins. Not quite as bad as Yuki Tsunoda who well and truly binned his car in Q1 rolling over the barriers in one of his best efforts. He starts from pitlane and should be thankful his team could put his car back so quickly. It looked Humpty Dumpty, but Red Bull appears to be better than Kings Horses and Men. Also crashing in qualifying was Franco Cash-a-Pinto who was told by his boss Flavio that he just had to be quick, not crash and score points. He could be 0/3 by weekend’s end.
So Piastri v Verstappen into turn one again. Unlike Saudi Arabia it’s a long way to the first set of corners.
GRID (Starting Order) – PIA VER RUS NOR ALO SAI ALB STR HAD GAS
Lap 1 – Piastri gets away OK initially but Max Verstappen pulls alongside into the first turn and dives deep under braking and makes his way past in a bold and brave move, Piastri avoids contact wisely. Behind them the rest of the top 10 assume grid order down to Isack Hadjar who dropped two spots to Gasly and a Ferrari, who we presume is Leclerc and not Hamilton, and we also presume Hamilton is already moaning to his team. Esteban Ocon pits which you can presume is car breaking, but no looks like the earliest switch possible to hard tyres. First lap replays show a hint of a touch with his team mate.
ORDER – VER PIA RUS NOR ALO SAI ALB STR GAS LEC
Lap 3 – With the top ten mostly sorted, the battle of the early stages is Lewis Hamilton v Kimi Antonelli for 12th where the young Italian is holding firm. Followed by Charles Leclerc trying to steal Pierre Gasly’s ninth place. They run side by side and Gasly runs off the track and drops to 14th.
Lap 6 – A tenth of the race gone, and the track is proving as hard to pass as it promised which works for Max Verstappen and his 1.6 second lead. George Russell is 2.5 second behind Piastri in third, then fourth to 12th are all just under a second behind the car in front. So it’s close but no action just yet, but someone will lose patience and talent soon enough surely.
Lap 9 – Lando Norris is very close to George Russell now, thinking about moves into the first two braking areas, but Russell holds on for now. The next lap Lando pulls alongside the Mercedes early into the lap and runs wide onto the grass at pace. Norris holds onto the car and restarts his pursuit of third.
Lap 11 – Lando Norris nails Russell with a beautiful and brave move into the Villeneuve chicane going around the outside of the first part of the fast chicane and keep his foot down switching to the inside and takes third. He’ll need to hurry up though, Piastri is nearly eight seconds up the road.
Lap 12 – First front running cars pit for tyres – George Russell and Carlos Sainz. This early might mean two tyre stops and not just the one most people thought pre-race. Charles Leclerc pitted even earlier.
Lap 13 – Alonso pits and rejoins in 15th behind George Russell and Charles Leclerc, who is the big winner of the first pit stops so far.
Lap 14 – Oscar Piastri pits for tyres and the pit stop has a small issue and he loses 1-2 seconds of stationary time.
ORDER – VER NOR ALB HAD ANT HAM HUL COL BEAR TSU (No Pit Stops)
Lap 18 – Oscar Piastri starts his climb up the gird following his pitstops with a fine move on Yuki Tsunoda for 10th and Oliver Bearman a lap later. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris haven’t pit yet, and Verstappen has almost ten seconds on Norris, who has slightly less to Alex Albon.
Lap 20 – Three moves in three laps for Oscar Piastri who takes 8th from Colapinto. That’s three cars between him and the next person he’s racing against for the race – Charles Leclerc.
Lap 21 – Leclerc and Piastri are trading overtaking moves as they carve through the non stoppers. George Russell is having much less fun a is tstill tstuck behind Tsunoda. He could have car troubles.
Lap 25 – Oscar Piastri is 32 seconds behind Max Verstappen, which should favour the Red Bull driver once he stops, despite the Imola pitlane being a long one. Lando Norris is nine seconds behind Verstappen.
Lap 27 – Piastri passes Hamilton and Antonelli is consecutive laps and is closing in on Isack Hadjar who is doing very well in fourth. Again the leading RB driver is better than the second Red Bull driver. A lap later Piastri gets by Hadjar too, he is sure very decisive with his overtaking today, making all the difference compared to others behind him. But is he ruining his tyres?
Lap 28 – Lando Norris pits from second place and rejoins in 6th, but importantly ahead of Charles Leclerc, so effectively a net third. But there’s a bunch of cars between him and Piastri in net second.
Lap 29 – Yellow flags for a broken down Haas of Esteban Ocon which brings out a Virtual Safety Car, which benefits the cars who have yet to pit greatly. Especially Max Verstappen who resumes in the lead and has a cushion of 20 seconds. But also gifts Albon and Hadjar their high positions after their no pit strategy plays out nicely.
VIRTUAL SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
ORDER – VER PIA NOR ALB HAD ANT HAM ALO STR LEC
Oscar Piastri pits for new tyres, why not. He loses second place on track to Lando Norris and third to Alex Albon, but he probably would have anyway with old tyres.
Lap 31 – RACE RESUMES
Lap 33 – Lando Norris sets a fastest lap from second place. He’ll need a few more of those with Max Verstappen just under 20 seconds up the road. Piastri is 13 seconds behind Norris but has an Alex Albon in between them. Piastri sets fastest lap the next lap.
Lap 34 – Lewis Hamilton takes just two post-pitstop laps to pass Kimi Antonelli, something he was unable to do in the first half of the race. Two laps later he got past Hadjar, and looks like he is happy driving a Ferrari today.
Lap 38 – The Ferraris have come to life with Leclerc joining in the overtaking fun. Maybe it is the fear of disappointing the home fans, some inspiration from the new pope or a combination of those and neither. Either way they are carving through.
Lap 40 – Oscar Piastri gets past Alex Albon for third, looked so easy for the McLaren driver. Not that you could tell from the expression on his face. Because he’s wearing a helmet. But we’re sure his demeanour wouldn’t change regardless. Piastri 13 seconds behind Norris who has closed the gap to Verstappen to 18 seconds.
ORDER – VER NOR PIA ALB HAM LEC HAD ANT RUS HUL
Lap 46 – Kimi Antonelli slows and pulls over in a slightly dangerous position. Will it be a Virtual Safety Car or full Safety Car? And who will pit? And poor Kimi breaking down in his home GP after doing well.
SAFETY CAR DEPLOYED
Max Verstappen pits for new tyres and can do what he likes with the lead he has under the safety car. Lando Norris pits for tyres and the stop is twice as long as usual which won’t help him in his battle vs his teammate Piastri. It doesn’t Piastri takes second. Norris comes out alongside Alex Albon and it is debatable who was ahead, but Norris takes third anyway.
Cars at the lower end of the Grand Prix all pit for new tyres and dreams of Championship points.
Further ahead Alex Albon pits and rejoins fifth. There’s a big bag of points heading to Williams.
ORDER – VER PIA NOR LEC ALB RUS HAM SAI HAD HUL
Lap 51 – Bloody hell. Lap 51 and this Safety Car is still going. It shouldn’t take this many laps to move a car. It couldn’t have been more than a few hundred metres.
Lando Norris on the radio talking up McLaren tactics and whether he should be let in front to challenge Verstappen on fresher tyres. It’s probably fair enough, but sure it wouldn’t be received well if it were reversed.
Lap 54 – RACE RESUMES
Max Verstappen clears out easily in front. Whilst watching for McLaren team order action, we almost saw Leclerc pinching third from Norris. Nothing to note from the rest of the field from the restart.
Lap 55 – Lando Norris is closing on Oscar Piastri and we’ll probably see team orders kick in soon enough as Max Verstappen sets a Fastest Lap and already has an almost three second lead. Whilst the McLarens squabble for a few more laps,
Lap 58 – Lando Norris makes a move into the first chicane and nails it, with Oscar Piastri being firm but fair. As well as true but fair. Lando now has money where mouth is time and try and chase down Verstappen. Although the five seconds gap and new fastest lap to Max Verstappen makes a win for Norris unlikely.
Lap 59 – Alex Albon harassing Charles Leclerc for fourth place in another example of a fine drive for Williams. Double points for the team at the moment with Sainz in 8th too. But Lap 60 sees another attempt but this time he runs wide across the gravel and drops a place behind another Ferrari.
Lap 61 – Lando Norris is over six seconds behind Max Verstappen, and Oscar Piastri is nearly five seconds behind his team mate. So despite settling for second and third, the swap was justified.
Lap 62 – The Albon-Leclerc battle continues and the Willaims eventually gets past to take fifth.
FINAL LAP – Max Verstappen cruises to the chequered flag, like he cruised all day. Behind that it’s double points for McLaren, Ferrari and Williams, with the leading rookie being RB’s Isack Hadjar.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER NOR PIA HAM ALB LEC RUS SAI HAD TSU
Here we go through the field and highlight the very best (Great) of the race, and the plodders, the over-ambitious, the out of luck, and simply hopeless (Grape).
These points get added to our Driver of the Season scores. 5 points for a great nomination, and -5 for the worst or grapest driver in the pack. Then it is +2 /-2 for honourable or dishonourable mentions.
THE GREAT-EST – MAX VERSTAPPEN
Did his usual great job all weekend. Almost snatched pole position in qualifying but did the job properly in the race with a bold move that Oscar Piastri couldn’t defend against. He ran long on tyres and was rewarded when a Virtual Safety Car was called. Did it easy.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – Disappointed in qualifying with only fourth. But recovered well in the race finishing second behind Verstappen after running the longer strategy. Gained some points back on his team mate in the Championship ahead of the Monaco GP the next weekend.
ISACK HADJAR – Best of the rookies this weekend with strong qualifying and a good race as well. Part of the No Stoppers brigade.
ALEX ALBON – A solid qualifying saw him 7th, one place behind teammate Sainz. Then he raced basically in the top six all race and looked strong.
CARLOS SAINZ – Great six on the grid, and not quite his day as he ended up 8th. But the Willaims is starting to look like a fast car, so sunny skies ahead.
FERNANDO ALONSO – Great fifth on the grid in qualifying. Finished just outside the points, but at least he has something from the season so far.
LEWIS HAMILTON – A result of fourth which will hopefully cheer him up.
THE GRAPE-EST – YUKI TSUNODA
A huge crash in Q1 where he got some air time and rolled over the top of the barriers. He was safe and well. His Red Bull career might not be. Did score a point, which wasn’t bad, but also had a run-in with Carlos Sainz, but both continued.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
OSCAR PIASTRI – Harsh, but not the result you want after taking pole position. Finishing behind your nearest World Championship contenders. But unlike his team mate, his worst weekends are pole position and third place.
FRANCO COLAPINTO – Reports of his five race deal were denied by his boss Flavio who said all he had to was be fast, not crash and score some points. None of the three requests achieved.
ESTEBAN OCON – Qualified in the back four of the race, ran pretty far back during the race until his car expired.
Was it a good race, loads of action, a tense ending, a surprise result or DNF, or just a big, fat, snooze-fest?
We rate the big race itself, so we know which races to go back and watch in the off season or one to simply remember the winner for the post season quiz nights.
PRE RACE ACTION (FP, QUAL, SPRINT, OFF TRACK etc) – 3 / 5
A compeditive qualifying, with a few high speed prangs from The Replacements drivers made for an interesting session. The SkyF1 broadcast team was almost a B team with key players taking a rest, but we’d argue it was almost better than usual.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 7 / 10
A fair amount of overtaking in the upper and lower midfield and a few Safety Cars thrown in made it an interesting race, without having a real battle for the top three positions. The extended Safety Car sapped some of the enthusiasm for the race.
ANY SURPRISES? – 3 / 5
The Williams pace overall raises an eyebrow. The Aston Martin pace in qualifying was even more of a surprise.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 3 / 5
The race weekend confirms that Max Verstappen is a factor at any race anytime.
ENDING – 4 / 5
Last Safety Car timing meant the field was bunched and close together for the last ten lap burst. McLaren team orders also bubbling away kept one awake too.
OVERALL RATING – 20 / 30
Not a bad race at all. Verstappen winning means it looks like a genuine three horse trace for the title, plus improved performances from Williams, and the late surge of the Ferraris means it could be just as compeditive as 2024.
2025 F1 Season Race Ratings
R1 – Australian Grand Prix – 27/30
R2 – Chinese Grand Prix – 11/30
R3 – Japanese Grand Prix – 18/30
R4 – Bahrain Grand Prix – 19/30
R5 – Saudi Arabia Grand Prix – 17/30
R6 – Miami Grand Prix – 17/30
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
2024 F1 Season Review Gear
Stay tuned for our Power Rankings from the race soon as it is currently being calculated and will be ready on Monday.
2024 F1 SEASON FULL RACE REPORT HISTORY
