2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Qualifying Review

Linus O'Howell
7 days ago
2 min read

With Imola being notoriously difficult to overtake, the teams and drivers went at it in one of the most important Qualifying Sessions of the entire season!

Q1

In Qualifying 1, Liam Lawson, Nico Hulkenberg, Esteban Ocon, Oliver Bearman, and Yuki Tsunoda were the five slowest drivers! Liam Lawson got caught out by the timing of the second Red Flag, resulting in him suffering yet another Q1 exit whilst Nico Hulkenberg made a mistake on his final run! Haas’ pace was absolutely shocking, with Esteban Ocon heading a very disappointed (and unfortunate) Oliver Bearman, whilst Yuki Tsunoda failed to get a lap time on the board after a horrific crash that saw his Red Bull flip over! It was Max Verstappen who topped Q1, some 3 and a quarter tenths ahead of the McLaren of Oscar Piastri!

Q2

In Qualifying 2, Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Franco Colapinto all failed to make it into the Top 10 shootout! A really disappointing second run saw Charles Leclerc fail to reach Q3, and a lack of pace for Lewis Hamilton meant both Ferrari’s were eliminated from Q2! In fact, it was a pretty terrible day for the home heroes as Andrea Kimi Antonelli could only manage 13th for Mercedes, ahead of the Kick Sauber of Gabriel Bortoleto (who did a decent job), whilst Franco Colapinto wasn’t able to get a lap on the board after crashing in his first Q1 session for Alpine! Amazingly, it was the Williams of Carlos Sainz who topped Q2, with Piastri once again in second!

Q3

In Qualifying 3, a 1:14.670 was enough for Oscar Piastri to take another Pole Position in his charge for the Title! Oscar did a great job here, his final lap was superb, and he’ll be looking to make it 4 Wins in a Row tomorrow! Max Verstappen was only 34 thousandths back in second place, ahead of George Russell who did a great job for Mercedes, whilst Lando Norris struggled again as he could only manage 4th! Fernando Alonso pulled out the performance of the day to get his Aston Martin into P5, ahead of the two Williams cars of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, whilst Lance Stroll managed a strong P8 in what was a terrific day for the Silverstone-based team! Whilst disappointed with P9, Isack Hadjar still put in another great performance in Racing Bulls’ Home Race whilst Pierre Gasly rounded out the Top 10!