Oscar Piastri paid the price for leaving Max Verstappen room as the Red Bull driver passed him at the start to win at Imola.
Verstappen claimed his fourth consecutive victory in what is likely to be the last running of the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.Piastri made a good start from pole position and drew ahead of Verstappen as they raced to turn one. But the McLaren driver left the outside free for his rival and Verstappen took full advantage, sweeping by him into the lead.
The situation became worse for Piastri soon afterwards as McLaren brought him in for an early first pit stop, putting him on course to make two tyre changes. Several others made the same move, but as gaps opened up between the leading drivers, their tyre degradation improved and they extended their opening stints. Verstappen therefore built up a lead over Lando Norris, who passed George Russell early on.
However Piastri quickly made his way past the midfielders. That plus a Virtual Safety Car and a later Safety Car period eased his path back to second place.
Verstappen led Piastri and Norris at the final restart, which followed a Safety Car period caused by Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s retirement. But Piastri was unable to stay with the Red Bull driver, and within a few laps of the restart Norris took the ‘Verstappen line’ around the outside of his team mate at Tamburello for second place.
Charles Leclerc, who like Piastri lost ground when he pitted early, found himself fourth at the final restart on a worn set of hard tyres. He came under attack from Alexander Albon, who he forced off at Tamburello, before both were passed by Lewis Hamilton. Ferrari then told Leclerc to let Albon past on the final lap to avoid the risk of a penalty, which he did.
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George Russell, another driver to pit early, came seventh. He reported a possible problem with his car at one stage in the race, but was the only Mercedes driver to reach the finish.
He took the chequered flag under attack from Carlos Sainz Jnr, who was within DRS range. He was another driver who ran strongly in the opening stages but lost out by pitting early. He survived contact with Yuki Tsunoda as he passed the Red Bull driver on his way to eighth.
Tsunoda passed Nico Hulkenberg to claim the final point behind Isack Hadjar. Earlier in the race Red Bull instructed Tsunoda to delay Piastri when the pair met on-track, but the McLaren swept by with ease at Tamburello.
Fernando Alonso finished an unhappy 11th after running in the points early in the race. The final Safety Car period compromised Aston Martin who had depleted their stocks of harder rubber in qualifying.
Esteban Ocon was the first driver to retire, pulling over at the exit of Tosa early in the race much as Antonelli did later on.
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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
Jere (@jerejj)
18th May 2025, 15:52
Piastri basically threw away his victory chance towards Tamburello, which inadvertently hampered Russell.
McLaren should’ve made a call to swap the positions at the SC restart to give Norris more laps to attempt taking the victory, even if the outcome would’ve probably still been the same.
Slow decision-making, like with Ferrari in Miami.
Antonelli’s car recovery process was unnecessarily slow, as was allowing Bearman to unlap himself.
Leclerc totally forced Albon off-track even though the Tamburello corner combination is wide enough for side-by-side driving & he had the guts to complain about that.
Alonso’s radio remark was gold, perhaps even his best ever radio remark, & definitely this season’s overall best so far.
Aston Martin’s strategy ultimately ruined his chances of finishing in the points for the first time this season.
Grapmg
18th May 2025, 16:08
But if they had ordered Piastri to let Norris go to attack Max shouldn’t they also switch positions back if Norris didn’t manage to pass Max? Also it didn’t make sense to keep piastri out on old tyres and then switch positions. Fair play from McLaren.
Jere (@jerejj)
18th May 2025, 16:13
Another valid point.
BasCB (@bascb)
18th May 2025, 16:37
I think it might have been worth a shot changing them around, but really that would have had to be right at the restart to make sense, after that Max was ahead and it would probably have been a lot harder for Norris to pass Max than it was to pass Piastri on old tyres, I guess McLaren (probably rightly) were unconvinced they had a shot and just keep it between their guys to battle it out.
BasCB (@bascb)
18th May 2025, 16:38
The real question is whether McLaren shouldn’t have pitted Piastri as well. He’d dropped down behind Leclerc, but surely would have been able to pass him, that way Norris would have had a chance at the restart and maximize their chance at winning IMO.
Jordi Casademunt (@casjo)
18th May 2025, 17:35
He did not have had any decent tyres. Piastri had 2 new hards, 1 new medium and 3 used softs. He had already used the medium and 2 hards, the only option would have been to go back to the hards he used in his second stint, or the used softs. When the SC came out, the used softs were suicide. If they had known it would last so long it might have been an option (a bad one probably).
One downside of having softer tyres in an attempt of making the 2-stop viable is that drivers are left with just enough sets for a 2-stop. If something unexpected happens, the soft tyres being useless for a race stint means there’s no chance to react.
Michael
18th May 2025, 17:38
I don’t think they would have had another spare set of tyres. He had already used 1 medium and 2 hard sets and he wouldn’t be worth losing track position and putting on used ex qualifying tyres.
BasCB (@bascb)
19th May 2025, 12:04
Ah, right that makes sense then, yeah. Softs wouldn’t cut it at all to the finish line.
S Arkazam
18th May 2025, 19:58
If you want to advise McLaren on strategy, you’d better focus on why the decided to pit Piastri that early (into traffic).
If they wanted to try an extremely early undercut, then they should’ve used Norris as the guinea pig.
David (@nvherman)
18th May 2025, 20:46
Not long prior to Piastri being told to box, he’d been on the radio saying he didn’t think his tyres would hold on for Plan A (which was presumed to be the 1 stop strategy), and I’m presuming that McLaren were watching Leclerc’s lap times following his switch to the hard rubber and wanted to avoid getting caught out by the undercut.
Maybe if Piastri had been more confident of his medium tyres coming back to life, he’d have been more confident about not needing to pit when he did (which was very early)
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
18th May 2025, 15:57
I think Piastri was covering Russell, who was way faster off the line. That’s the biggest mistake ever: always, always cover Max. Russell wasn’t a factor at all.
cdavman (@cdavman)
18th May 2025, 16:09
This. Always, always cover Max.
… And do to Max what he would do to you in turn 1. Run him out of road.
Nm
18th May 2025, 16:35
Yawn
BasCB (@bascb)
18th May 2025, 16:39
Yeah. Pretty much needs to learn the same thing Norris had to learn last year – when on pole with Max in p2 you just ALWAYS have to be carefull not to get passed.
Osnola
18th May 2025, 16:14
In highlights:
Brilliant pass
To early pit for piastri
Not swapping drivers
Topdrivers:
Ver, ham,lec,alb
XM (@xmf1)
19th May 2025, 2:21
Would Lec get a 5s penalty if he didn’t give that place back to Albon, I wonder?
RH
18th May 2025, 16:19
I think Red Bull was actually the quicker car today. Probably being in clean air helped but Verstappen when the cars are close to fight is something else. Basically impregnable.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
18th May 2025, 21:26
You think? Don’t say these things around here. It’s all skill.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
18th May 2025, 16:22
I had flashbacks of when Lando got mugged by Piastri at Monza last year when Piastri himself got overtaken by Max today.
James Supercave
18th May 2025, 16:29
Typical Hamilton luck. He didn’t even deserve to be in the points, but they’ll say “he’s back!” Albon was in 4th and Sainz 10th without the full safety car as a reference for an example of how radically luck played a role.
RH
18th May 2025, 16:42
Data shows he was 3 tenths off Leclerc in race pace. He is slower than Sainz was, next to Leclerc in both qualifying and race.
He is just past it. Maybe he will show some flashes but as a driver he’s no longer elite.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
18th May 2025, 19:05
I would not belueve anyone talking about a drivers pace ten minutes after a race. Different tyres, traffic and pit strategie do make that pretty impossible to judge even after hours and days of analysis.
Luck had nothing to do with the result today. Except for probably Leclerc he beat every car he would have beaten anyway. The Ferrari was just plain faster and Leclerc AND Hamilton drove very well.
RH
18th May 2025, 20:26
You can choose to take me not seriously or anything.
Fact is outside of China, Hamilton is on average 3 tenths off compared to Leclerc. You can always say but he qualified behind, had to pass more cars etc. It doesn’t change anything.
In clean air, he was also slower by the similar margin as early as Jeddah.
Data is free for public usage. Why do people not try to look at it in raw and make their conclusions? See F1-tempo for a fairly informative take.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
18th May 2025, 20:51
Sorry, that came across the wrong way. I never tried to imply I wouldn’t take you seriously. You claimed that Hamilton “was 3 tenth off Leclerc in race pace” and I concluded that you were talking about this race and not the whole season and cited that number from some dubious sources on the internet. That’s what I was referring to with “don’t believe…” because it’s just impossible to tell so early as Hamilton had traffic almost the whole race.
I agree that Hamiltons stint with Ferrari has been poor so far and that a deficit of three tenths on average sounds fair, but I don’t agree it’s been three tenths here.
PS: F1 tempo is a great site, but again factors like traffic make the interpretation of raw data very difficult
David BR (@david-br)
18th May 2025, 17:06
Oh look. Another anonymous poster with a generic name who happens to be obsessed with ensuring we don’t think to highly of Hamilton. Are you alumni of the same clone farm?
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
19th May 2025, 7:53
+ 1. I don’t really understand the desire to attack Lewis at every turn ( not literally).
Edvaldo
18th May 2025, 17:35
They who? When you have to create the context of your post out of thin air, it weakens whatever you’re trying to say.
I did not see anyone praising Hamilton too highly because of a circumstantial 4th place. It’s not happening. Don’t act like it is just so you can make any sense.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
18th May 2025, 17:42
Strawman argument from someone who is clearly irrationally obsessed with Lewis. Another frightened white man
Osnola
18th May 2025, 18:29
Well at least you bring up the ultimate straw man…
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
19th May 2025, 0:53
Its not like Max benefited from a free Pit Stop… Oh Wait..
Finished 4th and with another lap or two would of made podium…. Suck it up
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
18th May 2025, 16:32
I had flashbacks of the 96 and 97 seasons when Schumacher challenged the Williams for the championship with inferior machinery.
kuvemar
18th May 2025, 20:45
Then you should visit a doctor because your flashbacks are imaginary. In 96, Schumi finished closer to Alesi than to any of the two Williams drivers. In 97, Ferrari was much closer to Williams and yet, Schumacher only came close to the title because he only had 3 DNFs (excluding his attack on Villeneuve) compared to Villeneuve’s 6 DNFs/DSQs.
Oxnard (@montalvo)
18th May 2025, 20:54
Tell me you didn’t actually watch the seasons and just looked on Wikipedia without telling me you didn’t actually watch the seasons and just looked on Wikipedia.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th May 2025, 21:03
Schumacher challenged a far superior williams in 1997, most people agree with this, and none of the other drivers at the time would’ve got even close to bringing a championship fight; in terms of DNF you have to look at mechanical ones, not spinning out cause a driver can’t drive in the wet, and those were pretty even.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
18th May 2025, 16:44
I also think FIA need to rethink recovering cars. We lost 10% of the race recovering two cars from not at all tricky spots. Then more laps letting just Bearman by. Then 1 lap for no reason at all…
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
18th May 2025, 17:47
They even explained that Bearman was to be alllowed to catch the pack up. The cars were on grass on a hill, what would you suggest they do with them instead? It was a cracking race but such is the climate of negativity around F1 that commenters find anything to moan about.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
18th May 2025, 18:30
A Lapping: Don’t let Bearman catch up completely. Half a lap is more than enough. Better leave him where he is. He’s lapped after all.
B First safety car: VSC the right call. Work began as soon as VSC sign appeared. Track was cleared quickly and efficiently. But close pitlane to ensure fairness.
C Second safety car: Completely unnecessary in the first place and way, way too long. VSC again would have been enough as the car was undamaged, off track and movable without a recovery vehicle. With physical SC the work starts only once they are lined up and the safety car is called in only at least two laps after the work is finished. They should really be the exception as it’s taking too long and changes the course of the race massively.
Antonelli parked just 50 meter down the road from Ocons car so the same procedure should habe been applied.
Tony Mansell (@tonymansell)
18th May 2025, 18:47
D. No
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
18th May 2025, 19:09
You asked for suggestions. So why no?
Grapmg
18th May 2025, 16:47
Isn’t that a bit weird how.can you avoid a penalty if you are already under investigation? I thought you give back the position immediately to avoid the investigation not wait until you are under investigation. So did the stewards drop the investigation because it was oke or because Leclerc let him past ?
I would rather have the stewards order to give back the place if needed. Makes it less complicated.
Osnola
18th May 2025, 18:32
Agreed, giving back should happen within one lap.
…
Red Andy (@red-andy)
18th May 2025, 18:58
I also think Leclerc letting Albon back through didn’t fully right the wrong, because Hamilton ended up ahead of him as well. If Leclerc hadn’t pushed Albon off, Alex could well have held off both Ferraris for fourth, rather than having to settle for fifth. For that reason I think Leclerc should have been given a penalty regardless of whether he gave the place back.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
18th May 2025, 19:30
Agreed. The investigation was because he forced him off and not for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. The damage to Albon was already done and that should have an impact to the stewards decision. However, the whole incident was racing for me. No need for any intervention, but the rules apparently say otherwise.
grapmg
18th May 2025, 20:34
Agree thats racing. How can you claim being pushed off when there is no contact at all. But the rules say you have to leave space in curtain situations. So was Albon far enough ahead I don’t know anymore, the decisisions seem a bit random (mirror , front tyre, apex?).
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th May 2025, 21:06
I didn’t like leclerc giving the place back, was interesting to see a battle against a faster car (considering the tyre advantage), but if he hadn’t I suppose there was risk to lose a lot more with a potential 5 sec penalty few laps after a SC.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
18th May 2025, 16:49
That pass, when I realised Max was going for it I ‘oh no, not again’. But Oscar seemed to realise he’d been had (too late obviously). But I think Piastri has a cool head on him. He’s leading the championship in a fantastic car, ending up building sandcastles with Max in the gravel isn’t worth it, that way someone like George Russell ends up scoring twice as many points as he would have if Oscar and Max stay in the race. Even finishing 3rd Oscar is still nearly a whole win ahead of Max still.
I enjoyed the race, Imola delivered. And I think we’re in for a quite a fascinating season.
Osnola
18th May 2025, 18:35
You seem to suggest there was domething wrong with that pass.
It completely surprised piastri but he reacted the only way it should have done.
Its more Norris sometimes seems to lack driving intelligence and creates dangerous situations.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
18th May 2025, 19:48
Quite the opposite, I thought it was a brilliant pass. I don’t how he pulled it off, or even went for it. But I think it’s one of the best I’ve seen for a long time.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th May 2025, 21:07
Yes, I really liked it too, I was like “wow” when I saw it!
Edvaldo
18th May 2025, 16:56
Piastri was caught napping and lost the race, basically. Some stuff you have to go through to learn and i bet he learned his lesson today. To never count Max out like he did.
Red Bull looked as quick if not a bit quicker than Mclaren but hardly fast enough for an overtake, so yeah, it’s on Piastri today and kudos to Max to see an opportunity and go for it. For people like him, coming home 2nd just doesn’t cut, and that’s why he’s so good.
Then Mclaren threw the most nonsensical strategy ever in a race the tyres were not falling off and on a track with only one real overtaking spot. They threw themselves out of any chance at a win with that.
David (@nvherman)
18th May 2025, 20:48
Not long prior to Piastri being told to box, he’d been on the radio saying he didn’t think his tyres would hold on for Plan A (which was presumed to be the 1 stop strategy), and I’m presuming that McLaren were watching Leclerc’s lap times following his switch to the hard rubber and wanted to avoid getting caught out by the undercut.
Maybe if Piastri had been more confident of his medium tyres coming back to life, he’d have been more confident about not needing to pit when he did (which was very early)
Addme (@dontme)
18th May 2025, 17:05
Piastri figured he had the race pace and could lose the corner and still win. I doubt he will make that mistake again.
At the end of the day, Max isn’t his direct competitor. Max gets a couple of races like this, but the RB isn’t suddenly the best car. I think he should be more concerned about the strategy which cost him second place to the main rival Norris.
Ferdi
18th May 2025, 20:41
That is my overall feeling as well. They still need to work on getting their act together as a team. All ingredients are there.
MichaelN
19th May 2025, 6:53
Maybe, but as we saw last year it is crucial to capitalise on advantages. McLaren did not over the summer,, and Verstappen won the title with ease. Yesterday McLaren had no answer for Red Bull’s pace, even warning Norris against trying to catch Verstappen for fear of would ruin the tyres. Red Bull is just one small update away from being this good everywhere.
Biggsy
18th May 2025, 17:08
I just wanna know one thing:
How did it take them 10 laps, TEN LAPS, to recover one car that was neatly parked right next to the wall.
Even if they’d pushed it, it would have taken them, probably, no more than a minute to push it to the first opening in the wall.
Absolutely ridiculous!
falken (@falken)
18th May 2025, 17:45
Might have been stuck in gear, so not pushable
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
18th May 2025, 18:04
That’s my thinking. We saw it briefly being carried by one of those telescopic tractor crane things when it went behind the wall. Perhaps there wasn’t one of them close, and even in the dry behind the safety car, that they used one of those (and the history F1 has with them) suggest it was necessary to use one and carry the car.
BMW P85 V10
18th May 2025, 18:03
Leclerc, the only one running old tires in the top 5. Take some race laps away from those tires for Ferrari. It didn’t help.
More serious, Leclerc was driving well, but should have been punished for his brush with Albon.
BamBoomBots
18th May 2025, 19:11
Some nice subliminal messaging in this article header.
Verstappen didn’t commit thievery of any kind. But the narratives and imagery must be kept alive in order to nurture the animosity-driven engagement.
Addme (@dontme)
18th May 2025, 20:19
I disagree. And Max also. Red bull “stole” a victory here. This is very common sport journalism terms when the underdog wins. RB is still the slower car, but they got one again against all odds.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
18th May 2025, 22:47
It absolutely wasn’t my intention to imply Verstappen had done anything wrong with his pass on Piastri, but I agree the original headline could be interpreted that way. I’ve changed it.
I do think ‘steal’ and its variants are often misused in this way and if you take a look back at past headlines you’ll see that’s something I generally have avoided (with obvious literal exceptions such as this).
BamBoomBots
19th May 2025, 9:29
Thanks for your honest reply.
Perhaps I was a bit harsh with my words, I’ll admit that. I think we both agree that using words with generally negative connotations to describe fair competition is unwanted.
Whether it’s common or not is not relevant I think, I still think it’s wrong, and appreciate your efforts in staying clear from it.
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
19th May 2025, 12:01
No problem, appreciate the feedback.
Edvaldo
18th May 2025, 23:52
I, for one, enjoyed the word, because it was a very smart, unexpected move. Piastri didn’t even see him.
A person who takes that the wrong way doesn’t deserve anyone’s time.
PlosslF1 (@f1-ploss)
18th May 2025, 20:00
I cant help but think that the drivers really need to brush up on there safe places to pull over near a trackside opening for recovery.
Two drivers with race ending problems just drove a 100+ metres past the marshals post causing a VSC then a full safety car…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
18th May 2025, 21:11
There can be strategic implications too, a driver might get a bonus if they cause a SC when it would be beneficial for their team mate or a team with the same engine.
Jogo
18th May 2025, 22:49
It seems the scales are starting to tip in favor of Piastri among McLaren’s management. From a rational point of view, this is justified. If a driver wins 4 out of 6 races, it’s mathematically obvious. This is evidenced by the silence in response to Norris’s unclear remarks regarding the tire condition on both cars after the restart; put simply, he meant that Piastri should let him pass “for the good of the team,” implying the fight for the win.
McLaren ignored this request. From this moment on, Piastri’s interests are paramount. At the same time, the team’s moral principles should be acknowledged – Lando, you are no longer our number one, but from now on, you are on your own, we will not hinder you. We will even risk a collision between our two drivers, but you have to make the overtake yourself.
To Piastri’s credit, although it was in his interest not to let Norris through, he resisted just enough for everything to go according to the Papaya rules. In fact, this pleases me; it seems we have two drivers who, despite a conflict of interest, have respect for each other. This is rare.
However, the obvious conclusion going forward is that the fight between the McLaren drivers will increasingly enter an “every man for himself” phase. Today, Norris had to understand that he is no longer the leader at McLaren.
slowmo (@slowmo)
19th May 2025, 0:01
The short sighted nature there was on Piastri’s side. He was never going to challenge Verstappen or hold off Norris. Had he let Norris go to challenge Verstappen straight away then he’d have potentially lost only 3 points to Verstappen rather than the 10 he gave up bringing him back into play for the championship. The Mclaren guys need to lock Verstappen out early and force it to a two horse race asap.
Homerlovesbeer (@homerlovesbeer)
19th May 2025, 5:43
Why would Piastri help his nearest WDC rival in getting more points for the weekend?
That’s just crazy talk IMHO
Armchair Expert (@armchairexpert)
18th May 2025, 23:56
The usual, brilliant stuff from the Greatest of All Time! That’s the difference between Max and all other drivers – only he can pull of magic first corner overtake, while his rivals would’ve have landed in the gravel trying to replicate that.
Mooa42
19th May 2025, 8:41
When I saw the move I thought Max had Piastri’d Piastri!
So maybe two drivers who could pull off that move and not crash into each other.
A very nice move indeed.
An Sionnach
19th May 2025, 0:34
Palmer made a fool of himself by saying that McLaren have to go for the win and have to swap the drivers around. The top two championship contenders. They need to be allowed to fight for their championship. I can’t see team orders coming in unless things change and Verstappen becomes a consistent threat.
Other silliness of the weekend was how Leclerc was dealt with for forcing Albon off. The investigation was cancelled when he gave the place back much later. Giving the place back did not undo the damage as Ferrari and Hamilton benefited by one place. Leclerc should have still gotten the 10s penalty. Unfortunately, that would not give Albon his place back, but Hamilton did not do anything wrong.
I wonder if drivers like Leclerc and Norris are getting fed up with their lack of success in wheel-to-wheel situations and are becoming a bit more rash. Norris was successful with a couple of moves this time, but there was something desperate about the timing.