If McLaren do end up losing this title to Red Bull and Max Verstappen, they will look back at weekends like this one and wonder what they could or should have done differently.
Did they get their strategy calls right? Did they get their set-ups right? How can a car which won by a yawning chasm, more than 30 seconds, in Miami two short weekends ago, end up being soundly beaten by a Red Bull that finished sixth on merit in Bahrain last month?
The answer is not just down to the different characteristics of the various tracks on the Formula One calendar, although they certainly play their part (if we went back to Miami next week, for example, chances are McLaren would romp home again). No, two things became abundantly clear in Imola. Firstly, Red Bull have unlocked something. Whether it is the new turning vane underneath their sidepod inlet, or some other as-yet undiscovered aero upgrade, Verstappen's balance was a lot better at Imola.
"That was really encouraging," Christian Horner admitted. "I would say that's probably, certainly since Brazil last year, which was obviously a wet race, the first time I can remember in a long time we've had the pace to really pull away and 'out-deg' the McLarens."
The second reason is Verstappen himself. The Dutchman is like the android in Terminator 2: a remorseless, shape-shifting killer. He was at it again in Imola. His move on pole-sitter Oscar Piastri at the beginning of the race was right out of the top drawer.
Starting P2, Verstappen's launch was not great by any means. In fact, Mercedes' George Russell, starting third, almost passed him into Turn 1. But Piastri, perhaps sensing Russell moving up behind him, and worried the Briton might pass him if he deviated from his line, declined to move right to block Verstappen. The Dutchman took full advantage, braking late, shooting around the outside of the Australian at Turn 1 and then squeezing him out at Turn 2. "Max just sent it and it was kind of 'win it or bin it'," Horner said. "He's just so good in that situation where he sees a gap. It's so decisive for him."
Piastri owned up to the error. "I just braked too early and it was a good move by Max as well," he said. Interestingly, though, he added that he was not too concerned at that stage. Piastri thought he would be able to make the position back based on McLaren's superior tyre management.
How wrong he was. It was in fact Piastri's tyres that went earlier than Verstappen's. He then stopped early and emerged in heavy traffic way down the field.
Verstappen just kept on going on his mediums, only stopping after a virtual safety car came out on lap 29, when he was able to dive in for a free stop where he went on to new hard tyres.
A second safety car, this time a full one, briefly bunched the field, after Kimi Antonelli retired his Mercedes. But Verstappen was never in any bother, stopping again to switch back to fresh mediums for the restart.
McLaren by that point had Lando Norris in third place, also on fresh tyres, behind Piastri in second place on a worn set. It was a fascinating pickle. Norris clearly wanted the team to order Piastri aside once the safety car went in, to allow him a crack at Verstappen. But they chose not to. "It was definitely a thought," admitted team principal Andrea Stella. "But you know, certainly we want Oscar having his own chances at the restart."
By the time Norris eventually passed Piastri, three laps later, with what was a pretty daring move, it has to be said, Verstappen was six seconds up the road. Game over.
Behind them, Lewis Hamilton finished a creditable fourth in his Ferrari, benefiting from the timing of the safety cars, but also better race pace than he has had for a while, while Williams's Alex Albon was fifth ahead of the second Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.
But it was Verstappen and Red Bull who were celebrating hardest. There has been a lot of talk in recent weeks about how the four-time world champion has not yet got the measure of Piastri, in the way that he has, say, Norris. That he is unsure how to race the unflappable Australian, particularly after their shenanigans in Saudi. Now he has put a marker down.
As have Red Bull. In the team's 400th race, Verstappen claimed his 65th F1 win, and his 116th podium, the same number Michael Schumacher achieved with Ferrari. He also cut the deficit to Piastri at the top of the standings to just 22 points, with Norris now only 13 points behind the Australian.
Could McLaren have done anything different? Should they have switched their drivers late on? It would have been the aggressive option. It was certainly their only chance of winning the race. The truth is, though, it would have upset championship leader Piastri, unnecessarily so, as it would not have yielded the win anyway.
"I think today we had the pace to cover whatever they could throw at us," admitted Horner. "It's been a very positive weekend. I think we're building a bit of momentum."
That is next week, with all the session times below:
On switching positions at the restart:
For once, the correct result.
Could be an interesting fight... for second. Williams move onto 51 points with another very strong weekend. Might have been a few more but they are clearly in that no man's land between the top four teams and the rest. Not that they will mind. A poor weekend for Haas, their nearest rivals. Aston Martin end up pointless again despite a very strong qualifying. A little unlucky with the timing of the VSC really.
Norris cuts Piastri's lead by three points, which is the minimum he would have wanted this weekend. Verstappen only nine adrift of the Briton and 22 shy of the lead. Russell drifts further away from contention, but not sure he was really in it in the first place.
Would Norris have caught Verstappen if he'd been allowed past Piastri straight away after the safety car? Almost certainly not. But making him sit in the Australian's dirty air for four laps didn't help. It would have been the bold call. But McLaren probably right on balance not to invoke team orders. Would have caused bad blood. Piastri would have felt undermined, as would his manager Mark Webber (who has been on the wrong side of similar calls in the past). Probably better for Norris to have made the pass fair and square on track.
"The start itself wasn't particularly great but I was still on the outside line and I said, well I'm going to try and send it around the outside and it worked out really well. That then unleashed our pace. Massive improvement from Friday and I am very pleased with that. Even on the hard compound I think our pace was very strong. Even on the restart I think we managed it all really well and brought it home."
"It was a long race... not easy to overtake but we did what we could. I think Max drove a good race, they were probably a bit quicker. We had a good little battle at the end. Second and third is great, of course we would love to be up there fightina against Max but they were too quick today."
Lost the lead at the start from being a little conservative and then the strategy from McLaren was a little odd.
He is speaking to David Coulthard:
"Just braked too early and, it was a good move by Max as well. Disappointing obviously but we made a few wrong calls after that. Definitely a few things to look at and review after that. It was a good move but also they had pace today."
"It was tricky. The VSC was perfectly timed for Max and Lando and then obviously I'd used both my hard tyres at that point. It made the restart pretty tricky. Tried my best to hang onto second... just didn't have the grip. It was inevitable that I was going to get past. I wasn't going to give up without a fight."
A second grand prix win of 2025 and makes up 10 points on Piastri and seven on Norris.
"Brilliant weekend, that was a fantastic execution all round. Thank you very much and not bad for our 400th race," he says on the radio.
Verstappen has not put a foot wrong today. The Red Bull clearly had the pace to compete today but he made the victory with that overtake on Piastri at the first corner... a brilliant drive!
Norris second, Piastri third with Hamilton just behind in fourth and Albon fifth.
Yes, he is. Leclerc driving defensively and beautifully. It's so close, though. Leclerc's tyres look dead.
Hamilton might not have the pace, or the laps, to catch Piastri for third.
Leclerc has been told to give the position back by his Ferrari team... it is under investigation by the FIA. He hands the spot back, Albon up to fifth, then. Leclerc not happy.
Piastri the next man ahead in third. A podium for Hamilton in Italy? Maybe, just maybe. Albon is already on the back of Leclerc again for fifth... but is running out of time.
He tries around the outside at turn one but runs out of room and then loses fifth to Hamilton behind! Did Leclerc run him off? Perhaps, but the road just runs out there when you go around the outside. Hard to say on first glance.
Hamilton now chasing Leclerc...
Verstappen leads Norris by 5.8sec and is checking out.
Leclerc doing a great job on old tyres but you feel like it is a matter of time... a podium for Williams would be quite something but fourth wouldn't be bad either. Hamilton is closing up on them both now.
Decisive move from Norris and that settles that argument with the help of DRS. They were close to contact as Piastri slid over the kerbs but they continue unharmed. Albon is an outside bet for a podium here. He has much fresher tyres than both Leclerc ahead and Piastri ahead of Leclerc...
Not close enough to try a move into the first chicane, but it bodes well for the next lap. Hamilton gets Russell for sixth as Norris closes the gap further. Verstappen too far ahead to be troubled now, without a mistake, you feel. Four seconds ahead.
But can Norris get Piastri for second? These are the two leading men in the championship let's not forget. Norris needs to start eating into his team-mate's lead.
We might not have a battle for the lead but we could well have one for second place...
Norris a further 0.8sec behind. I think McLaren are just letting their cars race. Does this mean they are throwing away victory? Not exactly, but it is not helping, that is for sure.
Verstappen gets a decent restart but Norris doesn't really make great progress on Piastri, with Leclerc right on his rear wing.
Verstappen stretches his lead over Piastri to one second, with Albon putting Leclerc under pressure for fourth...
Here we go...
That sorts that bit out, thankfully. It will be Verstappen, then Piastri and then Norris. Piastri on much older tyres is not going to be much of a threat to the Dutchman at the start, and he will have to watch his mirrors for Norris behind. As well as perhaps others.
Leclerc is pessimistic about his chances here. He did not change his tyres, as Piastri did not, and does not think he will be able to finish in the points.
"I see Oscar's tyres are pretty dead," he then effectively asks (while denying it) to be let through. The SC is still out. Will Bearman be allowed to unlap himself? Doesn't appear to be the case. He is the only driver who has been lapped, though, so not really sure why he hasn't been. Antonelli's car is finally being wheeled back behind the barriers.
Not sure Piastri would be too keen to let Norris through if asked to.
Bearman is the driver between Verstappen and Piastri and then Norris and Albon. This has worked out reasonably for Verstappen, but it will have reduced his significant advantage to nothing.
Will McLaren swap their cars? Piastri is ahead of Norris but has 17-lap older tyres.
Well, they can't really do it effectively at the restart because he would cede several positions, not just one. Hmmm. I think McLaren have got to think about seriously swapping their cars as soon as possible if they want to win the race. I am sure they are doing so.
He pulls off the track with "an issue"... it's yellow flags and then a full Safety Car.
Well, that makes it interesting. Not sure what happened but he lost drive through Tosa.
Surely everyone will stop now. What tyres will the McLarens put on?
Norris pits. It's slow. Leclerc told to stay out because they do not have a suitable tyre to last until the end of the race. Piastri stays out.
0.383sec faster than the Williams the last lap, so that advantage has levelled off a bit...
18.3sec over Norris.
"It's going to be torture. It's a wreck. I'm the unluckiest driver in the f------ world," he says on the radio. He is 13th on 30-lap old hard tyres... I feel his pain.
This lead is fairly stable, the Red Bull and the McLaren cars all in clean air and evenly matched. That said, Verstappen is about to approach a gaggle of backmarkers, but can't imagine he will be losing a great deal of time.
The Ferrari driver was 1.2sec faster on the last lap and trails the Williams by eight seconds or so. Wonder if Albon will pit again?
Better news for Albon, no further action taken for the yellow flag infringement.
Verstappen leads Norris by 18.1sec and Piastri by 31.1sec. I think that is where they are finishing, unfortunately. The VSC's timing ruined the race at the front.
A move on Alonso around the outside of the Tamburello chicane. Albon has been noted for a yellow flag infringement. Hmmm. Piastri now within DRS range of him anyway, so a podium slot is a long shot for the Williams driver.
He has the second Ferrari of Leclerc to contend with and he succumbs again, dropping down to eighth. Mercedes 8th and 9th now. Not a good afternoon for them.
Norris arguably faster but 18 seconds is a huge amount of time to make up in the next 26 laps...
Slick, around the outside. Hamilton the fastest man on the track currently and closing up on Hadjar. Has been a decent-ish afternoon for the Briton, albeit with some fortune.
He gets Hadjar this time and is up into fifth, around the outside of the first chicane.
But they come very close to touching or may have actually done. Incident has been noted. Hamilton finally overtakes Antonelli for sixth. Hadjar the next man ahead.
Hamilton in the other Ferrari, the next man up the road. Hamilton battling with Antonelli, still.
Norris was half a second faster than the Red Bull the last time around, though...
Leclerc has been disadvantaged by this, but it has worked out for a few other cars, including Alexander Albon.
Here is the top 10:
Piastri is 19.8sec behind Verstappen now and Norris a further five seconds back. This will have rejigged the order slightly but has worked out brilliantly for Verstappen.
Sadly, I think that is the end of the battle for the race win unless something else strange happens. Piastri comes in under the VSC for his second stop but it's another slow one.
Ocon has pulled out of the race in the first sector. His car is stricken on the grass. This hands Verstappen an advantage here and will gain a decent chunk of time stopping under non-racing conditions.
That's probably sealed the victory for the Red Bull driver, then.
I doubt it'll be very long before Verstappen pits, but again, his pace is good and Red Bull will want to make this a one-stopper if they can. It seems to be the way. Albon moves up into second, but is 25 seconds off Verstappen.
Piastri the fastest man on track but isn't really make great progress when it comes to lap time, though he is working his way through the field and is now up to fourth.
Depends what happens in the second, stint, obviously but it is surely going to be a two-stop for Piastri who will have taken so much tyre life out of his hard tyres in traffic here.
Piastri 33.2sec behind the leader... Norris still around nine seconds off the lead as he has been since getting into second.
Russell in 11th, then Tsunoda, Sainz, Alonso, Stroll, Gasly, Lawson, Bortoleto, Ocon and Colapinto.
Russell gets Tsunoda for 11th.
Piastri is approaching the Antonelli/Hamilton battle...
33.2sec off Verstappen currently, which means the leader could pit now and still get out ahead. Piastri, at least, was half a second faster than Verstappen the last lap but he has conceded a tyre advantage now. Not sure he is going to be winning this from here, but let's see.
Verstappen will want to go as long as possible and he is currently in clean air and has Norris nine seconds behind. It's going very well for Red Bull.
He says the rear is moving a lot, even going down the straight. It was a problem that he noticed on his laps to the grid. Might explain why he stopped so early and struggled so much. Is something wrong or is the Mercedes just eating through its rear tyres?
But is told that there is no gap to come out into. Sainz seems to think that a one-stopper is the way to go. Albon certainly making it work. It seems that the medium tyre is coming back to those still on it.
Only Piastri has stopped of that lot. It is really not working out for him. Still significantly slower than Verstappen lap-by-lap.
Verstappen minding his own business out front and doing a very good job. Sainz, in 14th, is now ahead of Alonso.
Takes the outside line at the first chicane and brakes later. Clean move. Piastri losing time to Verstappen in this traffic. 0.8sec slower than Verstappen on the last lap and 32 seconds behind the leader.
Norris's last lap was largely equivalent's to Verstappen's.
No surprise, and they are racing for position so there is nothing wrong with it. Piastri is hitting traffic whatever happens because Bearman and Colapinto are ahead. Bearman more of a problem because he too is on the hard tyres.
Piastri has DRS on the pit straight...
He took nearly half a second from Verstappen's lead the last time around.
He has been kept out by his Red Bull team. They chose not to instantly respond to Piastri's stop. Piastri has Tsunoda ahead of him, who I am sure will do everything in his power to keep the McLaren driver behind.
It happened when he left the pits but seems to be OK now.
Piastri came out in 12th, only 4.5sec ahead of Leclerc, so that shows you how well that worked for the Ferrari.
Slow stop for Stroll in the other Aston Martin.
Piastri stops at the end of the lap but it's a slow stop, 3.6sec. The undercut will probably not work for him now.
He is now ahead of the Mercedes on track. Alonso stops at the end of this lap. The undercut looks strong. Verstappen leads Piastri by 2.6sec. Norris a further eight seconds back.
Through the outside of the Villeneuve chicane and the McLaren driver gets the job done, finally!
Russell comes into the pit lane, as does Carlos Sainz. And a few others. Bodes well for a two-stop race, I think.
Norris goes onto the grass to try to pass Russell at the second chicane but cannot get the move done. Alonso and Sainz are closing up on this battle as Piastri and Verstappen escape ahead. Five seconds the gap between second-placed man Piastri and Russell in third. And growing.
Norris pulls out of the slipstream of Russell twice in the start of the lap, outside of both the early chicanes... but pulls out of the move, if he even committed. Not really.
Russell is unsure that he is going to be able to make his tyres last until their target pit stop fighting with Norris like this.
Norris has closed in on Russell and has DRS down the pit straight. Alonso under pressure from Sainz behind for fifth. The other Williams of Albon is in seventh and isn't too far away either.
He is up to 19th... just one place after starting from the pit lane.
Piastri's start was initially good but the second phase wasn't great. That gave Verstappen a bit more of a chance. I do think he was at fault and gave Verstappen too much room, though.
"----, Piastri, what is he doing?!" was Russell's response to the move.
Piastri sets the fastest lap of the race, but still trails Verstappen by 1.6sec.
There has been a lot of talk about how Verstappen has not yet got the measure of Piastri, in the way that he has, say, Norris. That he's having to second guess how to race against the Australian (particularly after their shenanigans in Saudi etc). But he got that move done brilliantly. Now it's all about his tyres.
Norris is not too far away from the rear wing of the leading Mercedes.
He is battling with Leclerc but runs wide and then drops down to 14th. Leclerc up to ninth now and has good pace. Verstappen leads Piastri by 1.6sec.
Superb move. Here's the top 10:
Hamilton, on the hard tyres, has slipped down to 13th from 12th, behind Antonelli.
It's a fine start from Oscar Piastri and Verstappen is almost slow enough to be overtaken by Russell in third... but Verstappen goes deep on the brakes at the first chicane and goes through the door that Piastri left open and takes the lead!
I think Piastri was caught napping there but what an execution of it by Verstappen... he was so far ahead heading into the braking zone. Was he too complacent or too cautious? Verstappen was neither of those things.
Colapinto thanks his team for getting the car ready after his big crash in qualifying yesterday.
Everyone on the mediums apart from Hamilton, Antonelli, Hulkenberg, Bearman and Tsunoda. Ferrari splitting their tyre strategy. Russell the only one in the top four on used medium tyres, as he used them in Q3 whilst others did not. Same for the two Aston Martins.
A small one...
He did not make it through to Q2 because his lap time, which was fast enough to, was disallowed because of the red flag for Colapinto's crash.
He has taken a one-place grid penalty for being released from his garage too early in Q1.
A full update of the grid coming up shortly, with 15 minutes until lights out.
Not sure what it is but it doesn't look too frantic.
Piastri aiming to go for four race wins in a row. I believe if he does that he will become the first McLaren driver since Ayrton Senna in 1991 to do that.
"Oscar is very prepared, he's got his game plan, so does Lando. It's going to be a great race. Hard to pass around here but I like our chances. I think it's one [stop] but we'll have to see. Of course we'll prepare for both."
For someone who became a father two weeks ago, Max Verstappen looks surprisingly sprightly. There are no bags under his eyes when we meet in a quiet corner on the first floor of Red Bull's team home in Imola. Apparently, night feeds and nappy changes do not disagree with the four-time world champion.
"Ha, no it's been OK on that front!" he says laughing, when I put that to him, declining to elaborate on whether he is actually getting stuck into that element of parenthood. "But no, it's been a very special time. Lily is still so tiny, obviously, and can't communicate yet. But just having your own daughter... yeah, it's been amazing."
As it happens, Verstappen appears to be on a pretty long leash. Not only was he back at the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes last week doing some simulator work, he even squeezed in a trip to the Nürburgring en route home, to take part in a GT3 test in a Ferrari 296.
Verstappen first out. Ted Kravitz on Sky Sports reports that Williams have found and fixed a leak on Alex Albon's car in the last hour or so and looks set to get out onto the track very shortly indeed.
Piastri and Verstappen have had clashes/duels/fights in close quarters in Miami a fortnight ago (above) and then Jeddah a fortnight before that. The first few corners are tricky here and invite this sort of action, so I wouldn't be surprised if we see one driver or another pushing the limit. A crash between them? I wouldn't rule it out either.
Norris could do with stopping the rot to Piastri this weekend. Looks unlikely, though.
His first race for Alpine after replacing Jack Doohan has not gone well so far. That is an expensive crash.
The first of those was Yuki Tsunoda's upside-down accident in Q1...
He has struggled so far with the Red Bull (not as much as Lawson) and this certainly will not help his confidence or his quest for points.
Welcome to our live coverage for the 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix from the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, otherwise known as Imola. It is the seventh round of the 2025 Formula One world championship and, really, qualifying day yesterday followed the trends we have seen so far this season, with a few major differences.
The similarities are that it was the top four in the world championship taking the top four places on the grid. McLaren's Oscar Piastri snuck pole by less than a tenth of a second from the Red Bull of Max Verstappen. George Russell was just over a tenth of a second away from Piastri himself in his Mercedes. Norris, again, made a bit of a mess of his qualifying and finished fourth of the top four runners.
Given this track is one of the most difficult to overtake, that does not serve Norris's title hopes a great deal. He currently trails team-mate Piastri by 16 points. Not an enormous amount at this stage of the season, but since winning in Australia he has finished ahead of Piastri just once in the next five rounds, at Suzuka. In every other race, Piastri has won.
Verstappen and Russell, who trail by 32 and 38 points respectively, are probably only nominal championship challengers. Russell's car does not look to have race-winning pace at any point, whilst Verstappen's has been up and down. That may change in time, but at the moment it is difficult to see anyone outside of McLaren winning the title.
It was a miserable first home race of the season (Monza comes later) for Ferrari, with both Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc failing to make it out of Q2. They will start 11th and 12th. On raw pace they were slower than McLaren, Red Bull, Mercedes, Aston Martin, Williams, Alpine and Racing Bulls. In other words, only faster than Haas and Sauber. Poor.
Anyway, the race begins at 2pm BST with Piastri on pole. Despite coming here with aggressive (or so the theory was) tyre compound choices, this looks to be a one-stop race with the soft just not being used. That is something that Pirelli need to sort out for the remainder of the year. This track does punish mistakes, though, so I certainly wouldn't rule out a safety car.