Max Verstappen puts on a masterclass at the Temple of Speed at Monza, setting the fastest lap in history and destroying the McLarens in the race. Talking of class our 2025 Italian F1 Grand Prix Result Summary is down towards the bottom of the cruise ship of F1 reporting.
This 2025 Italian Grand Prix Result, Laps that Matter summary, Review & Ratings 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 Italian 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 –The McLarens were upset again for pole position as Max Verstappen not only takes pole position but the record for fastest lap ever. It was almost missed to show family shots in pitlane to growing frustration among F1 fans. Lando Norris will be alongside the Red Bull with Oscar Piastri in the best seat in the house if they run into each other. Ferrari would be slightly disappointed with 4th and 5th. Lewis Hamilton takes a five place penalty for a new engine. Some great performances with Gabriel Bortoleto qualifying 8th and Yuki Tsunoda making Q1 for a change. Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly start from the pitlane if that matters. It’s a dangerous first corner, with lots of potential for race ending disappointment. Too dangerous for Nico Hulkenberg who retires his car before the start.
GRID (Starting Order) – VER NOR PIA LEC RUS ANT BOR ALO TSU HAM
Lap 1 – Max Verstappen gets away good enough and pushes Lando Norris onto the grass and stays ahead by cutting the chicane. Norris holds onto second but Charles Leclerc nips ahead of Oscar Piastri as they bunch up behind. But not for long as a few corners later the McLaren burns around the Ferrari and retakes third. Halfway around the lap Norris calls Max an idiot via radio and perhaps the stewards agree. Verstappen in under investigation from the stewards and the Red Bull team tell Max to give up the position. Further back Kimi Antonelli wastes his best qualifying in a while by dropping to 10th, Bortoleto continues to impress and is 6th. Lewis Hamilton has gained a couple of spots in 8th.
ORDER – VER NOR PIA LEC RUS BOT ALO HAM TSU ANT
Lap 2 – Max Verstappen gives first place away to Lando Norris who is now the leader. In the process Charles Leclerc steals third again from Piastri who isn’t backing away from a fight despite his Championship lead, but worse case scenario for the title as his rival gains a place and he losses one.
ORDER – NOR VER LEC PIA RUS BOR ALO HAM TSU ANT
Lap 3 – Oscar Piastri is pushing his luck trying to retake 3rd from Leclerc, Piastri complaining about the Ferrari moving under braking. Leclerc is holding up the field a little with a bit of a train forming behind the Ferrari. Norris and Verstappen have cleared ahead by nearly three seconds
Lap 4 – Max Verstappen is in the slipstream with DRS and dives past Lando Norris into the first chicane and retakes the lead. The Red Bull sets a fastest lap once in the clear. Further back Lewis Hamilton gains another place while Piastri remains frustrated with Leclerc. He’d better hurry as they are falling well behind the top two.
ORDER – VER NOR LEC PIA RUS BOR ALO HAM TSU ANT
Lap 6 – Not before time, Oscar Piastri gets the job done on Charles Leclerc in a smooth, efficient pass into the first chicane. In the style which Oscar seems to be in all the time. Piastri is 3.6 seconds behind his team mate. By the start of the next lap, Lewis Hamilton gains another spot and is 6th.
Lap 8 – The field is starting to spread out a bit. Lando Norris is 2.5 seconds behind Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri is four seconds behind Norris. George Russell is annoying Charles Leclerc 4th place.
Lap 9 – Esteban Ocon gets a five second penalty for some bad driving. He was only pushing Lance Stroll off the track, so struggling to see why that would need a punishment,
Lap 14 – The fastest man in history Max Verstappen is certainly the fastest man in this race. He’s nearly four seconds up on Lando Norris who is another five seconds and change to Oscar Piastri. George Russell and Charles Leclerc provide the entertainment for now. But you do have to wonder if it is tactical why McLarens are dropping off the Red Bull so much.
ORDER – VER NOR PIA LEC RUS HAM BOR ALO TSU ANT
Lap 18 – Oliver Bearman makes the final official tyre stop, and rejoins last. Yuki Tsunoda pits next lap as the floodgates open. Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto pit the lap after and the wily Alonso gets ahead with a quicker stop.
Lap 19 – Max Verstappen has extended the lead out to nearly six seconds, and it is even further from Norris to Piastri.
ORDER – VER NOR PIA LEC RUS HAM ANT SAI ALB OCO
Lap 28 – George Russell pits, going for the undercut on Charles Leclerc from fifth place. Meanwhile Liam Lawson is less undercut and more running into Yuki Tsunoda who he is battling with at the tail of the field.
Lap 29 – McLaren discuss with Lando Norris about waiting for their pitstop so they can strap on some soft tyres. Hope so, this race needs something.
Lap 30 – Oscar Piastri wakes up himself and some of the fans in Australia with a fastest lap. The top five all have a gap of six seconds between them and the car in front. Except Max Verstappen obviously.
Lap 34 – Charles Leclerc pits from 4th place. He rejoins comfortably ahead of George Russell who was on his tail before the Mercedes stopped. Leclerc has Ocon and Stroll in between him and Russell, and the very best of luck to George Russell. Leclerc sets a fastest lap on lap 36.
Lap 38 – Max Verstappen first from the lead, and rejoins behind the McLarens who are yet to stop.
ORDER – NOR PIA VER HAM ALB LEC RUS OCO STR GAS
Lap 39 – Lewis Hamilton makes his first Ferrari race pitstop and rejoins 9th, behind Lance Stroll. Enjoy. Hamilton does enjoy, not taking too long to get past Lance Stroll.
Lap 41 – Providing some light entertainment are Oliver Bearman and Carlos Sainz who clash at the second chicane for 13th. Looks like Bearman’s fault as he clips Sainz’s left rear wheel. Both spin and lose places to Hadjar. We’ll see what the stewards say though. Ten seconds for Bearman is the punishment announced later.
Lap 43 – McLarens are yet to pit, and Lando Norris is four seconds in front of Oscar Piastri. They are losing time to Max Verstappen in third who is only 13 seconds behind Norris now. So if they don’t pit soon they won’t have enough laps left to catch Max on the softest and fastest tyres. A lap later and the gap to Verstappen reduced by another two seconds.
ORDER – NOR PIA VER LEC RUS HAM OCO STR ANT ALB
Lap 45 – Albon takes Antonelli for 9th place in some classic midfield side distractions. Stewards later investigate the moves and drivers running each other off the track.
Lap 46 – Oscar Piastri pits from second. Soft tyres are on, so maybe one last chance for some action.
Lap 47 – Lando Norris pits from the lead, but his stop is four seconds longer than Oscar Piastri’s. This could be very close on track now. It is close, and advantage Piastri as he stays in front of his team mate. What an unexpected bonus for Piastri. You can feel the disappointment in Sky commentary. They discuss that Piastri is a team man, that the team have helped Piastri, bla bla bla bla. To double down, Piastri sets a fastest lap.
Lap 49 – But Oscar Piastri does do the team thing and lets Lando Norris past. If you needed any further proof at McLaren favouring Norris here it is. It’s all good though, he’s free to race him now. But smells like bs. There were no favours earlier in the season. Even Max Verstappen thinks it’s rubbish over team radio. Wonder if the Sky commentary are going to talk about hollow second places like they were about Piastri, and spend the last laps justifying for their man. Sky F1 becoming painfully pathetically Trump-like sucking up Lando Norris.
Lap 51 – Lando Norris is easing away slightly from Oscar Piastri, so will keep second.
FINAL LAP – Max Verstappen sets fastest lap on Lap 52 before signing off in style with a win for Red Bull. Like qualifying, the TV cameras only just catch him crossing the line. Maybe it was because he was a massive 20 seconds in front. Lando Norris gets second a few seconds ahead of his team mate, and reduces the Championship gap by three points.
FINAL ORDER (Across the line) – VER NOR PIA LEC RUS HAM ALB BOR ANT HAD
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
Takes pole position with the fastest lap ever in F1. Won the race with the ease we have seen him and Red Bull do so many times before this season. Another one of those weekends where you remember just how good he is.
HONOURABLE MENTIONS
LANDO NORRIS – Reduces Championship gap by three points. Solid enough weekend.
OSCAR PIASTRI – Not a bad end result with third, but if he wasn’t aware of which side the bread is buttered at McLaren he is now. Wonder if he will be less courteous for the remaining races.
LEWIS HAMILTON – It’s a pretty bad season when 6th makes our better performances. But here we are for Hamilton.
ALEX ALBON – Solid points again from 14th on the grid.
GABRIEL BORTOLETO – Excellent 8th in qualifying and great 8th in the race. Solid from a rookie.
ISACK HADJAR – A great point after starting in the pitlane.
THE GRAPE-EST – SKY F1
Their heads are shoved so far up the ar$e of Lando Norris they almost forgot to commentate on the fastest lap in GP history. Note to Sky, you may keep missing key F1 moments if you need to keep wiping sh!t from your eyes. And the loss of respect for your coverage everywhere except the living room of the Norris family has plummeted btw. Their carry on, and justification of the McLaren swap in the race and telling audiences how Piastri feels and should feel is dross of the highest order, and more shame to their disgraceful bias, fast making the coverage less watchable each week.
DISHONOURABLE MENTIONS
NICO HULKENBERG – Being beaten by your rookie team mate in qualifying isn’t too bad, but being made to retire before the race starts is. Poor Hulk.
ALPINE – Slow.
LANCE STROLL – Classic Lance. Cut in Q1 in qualifying. Finished last. Will probably scour hsi way through interviewers that can still be bothered trying.
CARLOS SAINZ – Another race, another clash with a driver. This time he wasn’t blamed for it at least.
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) – 2 / 5
The fastest lap in GP history is exciting, although we almost missed it for a token shot od GP drivers family. No matter which driver, most F1 fans aren’t interested, and those that aren’t F1 fans wouldn’t know anyway. A little bit of love for Lewis Hamilton’s first Ferrari race was of mild interest. Would be better if he was quicker. The F2 race was great.
ON TRACK ACTION (RACE) – 3 / 10
It was quite the exciting first couple of laps with multiple position swapping in the early stages. It died off quickly once Max Verstappen got ahead of Lando Norris and became quite dull.
ANY SURPRISES? – 4 / 5
The pace of Max Verstappen and dominance of his lead over the Championship leading McLarens were quite the surprise. The late race pitstop/race swapping shenanigans was a surprise.
SEASON IMPORTANCE – 4 / 5
It looked a little Championship defining when Norris was first and Piastri 4th, but not long into the race they were 2nd and 3rd and the action slowed. But the late race team swapping smells like a convenient use of luck to help Lando Norris. Piastri may feel let down a little and he may just start extending the middle finger and win the Championship his way.
ENDING – 3 / 5
The late McLaren pit stop swap added some colour to a very grey race before.
OVERALL RATING – 16 / 30
We’ll see what Championship implications comes out of this race. But not one that will be watched over and over again.
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
R7 – Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix – 20/30
R8 – Monaco Grand Prix – 21/30
R9 – Spanish Grand Prix – 15/30
R10 – Canadian Grand Prix – 18/30
R11 – Austrian Grand Prix – 20/30
R12 – British Grand Prix – N/A but was great
R13 – Belgian Grand Prix – 13/30
R14 – Hungarian Grand Prix – 22/30
R15 – Dutch Grand Prix – 22/30
2025 F1 Season Preview Gear
F1 2025 SEASON – THINGS TO LOOK FOR AND AVOID
F1 DONKEY AUSTRALIAN GP BOLD PREDICTIONS
