As it happened: 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

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That concludes our coverage of round seven and sad to say that is likely a farewell to Imola. Here’s our race report.

Time for your verdict on that one. Rate the Race here and tell us who was your Driver of the Weekend.

Max Verstappen wins the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix!

L63 Ferrari tell Leclerc to let Albon through.

L61 Hamilton passes Leclerc at the same corner – unsurprisingly his team mate did not make things too hard for him. Hamilton is probably too far behind Piastri to think about third so may hang back to give Leclerc a tow.

L60 Albon goes for Leclerc on the outside of Tamburello but the Ferrari driver forces him wide. “That wasn’t fair,” says Albon.

L58 Norris goes for Piastri on the outside of Tamburello and the result is much like we saw on lap one. Norris is up to second.

The race restarts and Verstappen keeps his lead ahead of Piastri.

L53 The Safety car is finally coming in. “What the hell is going on?” asks Hamilton.

The Safety Car period is dragging on for an inordinately long time as the marshals recover Antonelli’s car. Bearman has now been allowed to unlap himself so the restart looks imminent.

L49 Verstappen leads Piastri, Norris, Leclerc, Albon, Russell, Hamilton, Sainz, Hadjar and Hulkenberg behind the Safety Car.

Leclerc stays out and moves up to fifth ahead of Russell. Hamilton and Hadjar pit.

Verstappen pits. Norris comes in too but his front-right is slow to come off and it nearly costs him third place to Albon.

The first VSC lasted a long time due to the length of the recovery. Race control may have realised they’re better off using a Safety Car for it. Not what Verstappen wanted.

L46 Antonelli has pulled over on the exit of Tosa, just where Ocon did earlier, so we may have another VSC coming up.

Hulkenberg’s point may yet come under threat from Sainz.

L41 Hadjar doesn’t defend as Leclerc attacks with DRS, the Ferrari driver takes sixth behind his team mate.

Albon’s time in the podium places is over – Piastri sweeps by in the DRS zone for third.

L40 Hulkenberg passes Alonso in the DRS zone for 10th place and with that Aston Martin have fallen out of the points.

L36 Hamilton sweeps past Hadjar easily with DRS and moves up to fifth.

Leclerc has passed the two Aston Martins and they’re going to have Russell in their mirrors soon.

Verstappen now leads Norris, Albon, Piastri, Hadjar, Antonelli, Hamilton, Alonso, Stroll and Leclerc. Will we see any position changes over the second half of the race?

L31 McLaren bring Piastri in for a second pit stop. That wasn’t too quick either. He loses a place to Albon but rejoins just as the VSC ends.

L30 Verstappen gets his pit stop done during the Virtual Safety Car period – not that he needed it. Albon, Hadjar, Antonelli and Hamilton come in too. Leclerc also makes a second pit stop, as do Russell and Sainz. Tsunoda, Gasly, Lawson and Bortoleto came in too.

Disaster for McLaren as the Virtual Safety Car is triggered immediately afterwards as Ocon comes to a stop.

L29 Norris pits from second place. That puts Albon up to second place for now. Norris resumes behind Hamilton.

L28 Piastri up to fourth ahead of Hadjar.

L27 Piastri has picked off Hamilton and Antonelli for fifth place.

Russell suspects he has a problem with his car due to his handling trouble.

L22 Piastri has clawed his way back up to seventh but the leaders are keeping their tyres alive and look set to one-stop.

Piastri closes on Tsunoda, who is still last of those who hasn’t pitted yet. Wood tells Tsunoda to “hold him up.”

Piastri was looking for his fourth consecutive grand prix victory this year but it’s looking like it will instead be Verstappen’s fourth consecutive grand prix victory at Imola.

L14 Piastri pits but he’s stationary for too long due to a slow tyre change.

L13 Alonso and Bortoleto in this time by.

Leclerc has already pitted and moves ahead of both of them.

L12 Russell resorts to a two-stop – he pits. Sainz follows him in for a fresh set of hards.

L11 Norris gets Russell on the outside going into Villeneuve. Alonso, Sainz, Albon and the rest have now caught them.

Russell is now coming under heavy pressure from Norris. “He just drove on the grass,” Russell remarks after Norris took a look approaching Tamburello.

“Piastri, what is he doing?” Russell is not impressed by how generous Piastri was with Verstappen at the start.

L3 Gasly ploughs through the gravel at Piratella as he goes side-by-side with Leclerc, and that may have cost Alpine a chance to score points today.

Ocon pits and switches to hards at the end of lap one.

Max Verstappen takes the lead from Oscar Piastri at the start.

The 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix is go!

The drivers are lining up ready for the start.

The drivers’ tyre choices for the race are as follows: Hamilton, Antonelli, Hulkenberg, Bearman and Tsunoda will start on hards, the rest on mediums.

It’s five years since F1 returned to Imola due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “We need to come to more tracks like this,” said drivers at the time. But with no room for the track on next year’s calendar, this is likely to be its last grand prix for the time being. F1 should “be careful to preserve the history”, said pole winner Oscar Piastri this week.

Race control says there is a 20% chance of rain during the race.

Oscar Piastri starts from pole position with Max Verstappen alongside him. It sounds like the McLaren driver is confident about their race pace and isn’t too concerned about the possibility of losing the lead to Verstappen at the start, saying it’s “not the be-all-and-end-all” to stay ahead.

There’s been no changes to the starting grid overnight aside from the fact Yuki Tsunoda will start from the pit lane, which always looked likely after that hefty crash in Q1. Here’s the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix grid.

We’re one hour away from the start of the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

• Antonelli was tiring from home race at Imola attention by Friday – Wolff
• Ferrari struggling to recreate set-up which “worked well” in Shanghai – Hamilton
• Verstappen told Red Bull to use Tsunoda before “hold him up” call
• ‘Saturdays have been mine for years but for some reason it’s drifted away’ – Norris
• “Plan C?”: Why McLaren only got their strategy right for one driver at Imola