Emilia Romagna GP Race Report
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen turned the tables on McLaren in an intriguing Emilia Romagna GP, indicating that the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship is far from a done deal for the Woking team.
In a race where a VSC and safety car period meant that pit stop timing was crucial McLaren could never quite get on terms with the Red Bull driver.
Imola saw the official debut of Pirelli’s new soft tyre, the C6. The teams had no experience of it with their current cars, and thus there was something of a learning curve for everyone as they tried to optimise it over a full lap.
Piastri did it best as he logged pole, but he only just shaded Verstappen, who was quickest on the first runs in Q3. George Russell was third for Mercedes, while Lando Norris again didn’t get a perfect qualifying run, and was left in fourth.
Verstappen was initially beaten off the line by Russell, but he got back in front and then crucially took the lead off Piastri with a typically bold move.
That put him in clean air and allowed him to drive as he wished in order to conserve his tyres, something that appears also to have been aided by recent upgrades to the car.
Piastri pushed hard before his team opted for an early first stop, leaving Norris – who had passed Russell – to chase Verstappen. McLaren’s luck ran out when Norris pitted and then immediately afterwards a virtual safety car for a stranded Haas gave Verstappen and most of the rest of the field cheap pit stops. Piastri also took advantage to make a second stop for fresh tyres.
Later a full safety car allowed Verstappen to again make a cheap stop, while also costing him the lead he’d built up. This time Piastri stayed out, and Norris stopped.
When the race restarted the order was Verstappen, Piastri, Norris – but the Australian was on older tyres and thus unable to push for the lead. He was also a sitting duck for his team mate, who soon got by. However by that stage Verstappen was safely out of reach.
McLaren had to settle for second and third, and the result allowed Norris to claw back a few points on his team mate, with Piastri now leading by 146 points to 133.
However Verstappen is right there on 124, and with the Mclaren drivers taking points off each other each weekend he is a serious title threat. Meanwhile his team mate Yuki Tsunoda had another tricky weekend, finishing 10th after a huge crash in Q1 left him with a pitlane start.
Russell’s P3 on the grid turned into P7 in the race as he struggled badly with overheating rear tyres, a trait that Mercedes has to address as we head into some hot races in the European summer. His team mate Kimi Antonelli had a tricky home event and retired with a rare Mercedes technical issue.
It was a race of mixed fortunes for Ferrari. Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton qualified only 11th and 12th as the red cars again struggled for qualifying pace. Hamilton however had a charging race, and helped by perfect strategy and some good passes he rose to fourth by the flag. Leclerc held that position until he got tangled up with Alex Albon, allowing Hamilton to jump both of them.
From seventh on the grid Albon finished a strong fifth as Williams again showed good pace. His team mate Carlos Sainz had a less optimal strategy and fell back from sixth to eighth. Nevertheless overall it was another promising weekend for the team.
Isack Hadjar again set the pace for Racing Bulls, the rookie starting and finishing ninth, while team mate Liam Lawson was only 14th.
Aston Martin’s fortunes were the opposite of Ferrari’s. With aero updates providing some extra performance team took a successful gamble on using the C5 medium tyre in qualifying, and it paid off with P5 and P7 on the grid for Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll. However the race fell apart as both men lost out with pit stop timing and were left stranded on old tyres when others pitted under the safety car. Alonso finished 11th and Stroll 15th.
It was a disappointing weekend for Alpine with Pierre Gasly slipping from 10th on the grid to 13th after an early trip through the gravel, while newly promoted Franco Colapinto crashed in qualifying and finished 16th.
The Sauber and Haas teams both had low-key weekends, although the latter showed pace at times with its latest update package.
Attention now turns to the Monaco GP, the most prestigious race of the year and the one where in theory drivers can make a difference and the normal pecking order can be shaken up, with the focus on slow corner performance.
We would normally expect Ferrari to be fast this weekend, but Leclerc is not optimistic, mainly because of the car’s general lack of qualifying pace. In contrast Russell is upbeat given that Mercedes is fast over one lap. However Monaco doesn’t always follow the form book.
The Pirelli C6 tyre will make its second appearance, but of more interest on the tyre front is the new rule introduced just for this race in an attempt to make Sunday afternoon more interesting.
Monaco has always been a one-stop race with limited strategic options, and when there’s a red flag everyone has a free change of tyres, and in essence the order is set.
For this race all drivers have to use three sets of tyres (assuming it’s dry), which means two pit stops. However, the red flag rule still applies, and any stoppage will inevitably allow a free tyre change.
It’s also likely that without red flags teams will use safety car periods to undertake cheap stops – and there’s nothing to stop them doing both tyre changes under the same safety car on consecutive laps, for example.
About Adam Cooper
Adam Cooper logs his 40th season as a motor racing journalist in 2024. Motor racing journalist, author, historian and copywriter. Started writing career in 1985 while still at university, and has been at every Formula One Grand Prix since Japan 1994 without missing one. He contributed to Autosport for nearly 40 years, while other clients have included Motor Sport, Autoweek, Racer, Road and Track, F1 Racing and The Sun.
