2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix Race Review

Linus O'Howell
6 days ago
3 min read

Verstappen Dominates to Take Superb Victory Around Imola

A first-corner overtaking masterclass from Max Verstappen was enough for the Dutchman to take a comfortable victory around Imola! Lando Norris came home in second ahead of teammate Oscar Piastri as McLaren scored another double Podium!

The Biggest Talking Points

The absolute main talking has to be the start as despite looking like he was under threat from George Russell behind, Max Verstappen was able to pull out the overtake of the decade to find himself in the lead and ahead of Oscar Piastri! Things weren’t calming down though over the next few laps as Lando Norris was putting George Russell under all sorts of pressure, eventually clearing Russell’s Mercedes for third! What made this Race interesting was some drivers were struggling on their tyres more than others, resulting in a mixture of different 1 and 2-stop strategies! The likes of Oscar Piastri, Russell, Carlos Sainz, and the Aston Martin’s all decided to go for a 2-stop whilst Max, Lando, Alex Albon, and Isack Hadjar were just some of the drivers opting for a 1-stop! The biggest gainer looked to have been Charles Leclerc as he jumped ahead of most of the other guys on a 2-stop, and he was looking very good for a potential P4! However, a VSC for a stricken Haas of Esteban Ocon changed all of that, with the guys who stayed out long gaining a massive advantage over the drivers who stopped early!

When the Race got back underway, the main focus was on Oscar Piastri trying to hunt down Alex Albon for the final step on the Podium, and as expected, Oscar was able to breeze his way by! At this point, everything was looking pretty calm, the only thing that was happening was both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were dropping massively back through the pack, a disaster for them after what was a special Qualifying for Aston Martin! However, things again got a little more interesting when a full Safety Car was deployed after Andrea Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes failed! This was a disaster for Kimi Antonelli in his Home Race, and it was a bit of a disaster for Mercedes too as George was clearly struggling! The Safety Car also brought out more interesting strategy calls as McLaren and Ferrari split their strategies, with Lando and Lewis pitting for fresh rubber whilst Oscar and Charles gained track position! When the Safety Car came back into the pits, we got a 10-lap shootout with Verstappen leading Piastri leading Norris! With the big difference in tyre performances, Lando was able to clear Oscar for second, and the main battle then came for 4th between Leclerc and Albon! In fact, things got a little too aggressive as Charles sent Alex through the gravel, opening the door for Hamilton to take 5th before he quickly passed his teammate to get into P4! Ferrari then told Charles Leclerc to let Alex Albon through so he wouldn’t receive a penalty, and to say Leclerc was angry would be an understatement!

The Standout Drives in the Race

I’ve actually only given out one 10 for the 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, and that is obviously for Max Verstappen! Max was absolutely faultless today, the move he made at Turn 1 was simply sensational, and he never looked in doubt once, this was a typical Verstappen performance that we’ve seen so often over the years! Alex Albon nearly got a 10 from me, I mean he finished 5th, but I genuinely feel like a Podium was on if he could’ve passed Leclerc sooner, and hence I can’t say it was a perfect Race/result! Elsewhere, this was a needed result for Lando Norris so well done to him, Lewis Hamilton had a very good recovery to finish P4, Carlos Sainz was very unlucky as he could’ve and should’ve been so much higher, and Isack Hadjar was another driver who had a really good result, yet he should’ve scored more points than he did!

Drivers Who Had a Shocker

I’m clearly too nice because for a 4th-straight weekend, I haven’t given out a single 1! The Race completely unravelled for Aston Martin, and Lance Stroll failing to pass Liam Lawson at the end wasn’t a great look! Elsewhere, Franco Colapinto didn’t look particularly comfortable in the car, Gabriel Bortoleto finished last on the road, and Haas really struggled, particularly Esteban Ocon!