@Max33Verstappen takes victory in eventful #ImolaGP. #F1

Verstappen Imola GP Victory – Reigning world champion Max Verstappen outfoxed both McLaren’s to take victory at the Imola GP on Oracle Red Bull Racing’s 400^th Grand Prix.

This was Verstappen’s 65^th-career victory and pushes the flying Dutchman to be 22 points off championship leader Oscar Piastri who came home in third behind McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

When the 63 lap Imola GP began, Verstappen from second on the grid attacked Piastri into Tamburello corner, going late on the brakes and sweeping around the outside of the McLaren with a sensational move.

Behind the Red Bull, Piastri opted to stop early for what was meant to be a one-stopper, switching his C5 yellow-branded mediums for C4 white-marked harder compounds on the 14^th tour.

A similar early pit stop for Mercedes’ third-placed starting George Russell also released Norris into clear air, with the latter 10 seconds behind Verstappen at this stage of proceedings.

Red Bull’s tyre wear continued to look promising than expected, with Verstappen shipping two to three tenths per tour, which was not enough pace for worry about for the race leading Dutchman.

But the Grand Prix had an initial plot twist on lap 29 when a Virtual Safety Car was deployed for the stopped Haas VF-25 of Esteban Ocon, who peeled off between Variante Alta and Rivazza.

The VSC made it very easy for driver who had not pitted yet, including race leader Verstappen Norris crucially stopped on the previous tour, and lost out.

When the race returned to green on the 31^st lap, Verstappen’s lead out-front increased to 20 seconds as Atlassian Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon also benefitted to move up into third place and in-front of Piastri.

Norris was unable to gain back more than two seconds on race leader Verstappen, whilst Piastri rapidly moved up to third place, but was already dropping to over 12 seconds behind his McLaren team-mate.

The stability in the race did not last as home favourite Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired his Mercedes F1 W16 racer from eighth position, bringing out the safety car.

Verstappen stopped for another set of the hards, along with Norris, Piastri remained out, splitting the duo for a for the final 10-lap dash as the pack was released on the 54^th lap.

On fresher rubber, Norris made short-work of team-mate Piastri but could not stop Verstappen from clinching his second victory of the campaign, whilst Piastri came home third.

On split strategies, both Ferrari’s produced a solid display at their initial home Grand Prix of the season following a disastrous 11^th for Charles Leclerc and 12^th for Sir Lewis Hamilton in qualifying.

Both made a great start, but Leclerc looked to lose out during the VSC, only then to be brought back into the race by remaining out under the late safety car deployment.

Leclerc was unable to hold fourth on his older compounds, first sending Williams’ Albon off the track into Tamburello, which saw Albon lose out to Hamilton as well.

Hamilton did overtake team-mate Leclerc, who was then told to let Albon by to avoid receiving any five-second timed penalty later on from the stewards. The Monegasque driver came sixth behind the Williams.

Russell was another driver to lose out in the strategy battle, although Mercedes’ high tyre wear did not help matters as the Briton started on the C5 mediums he used in qualifying.

Carlos Sainz took eighth to complete a double-points haul for the Grove based-outfit followed by RB’s Isack Hadjar who came home ninth. After a horrific crash in qualifying, the other Red Bull RB21 entry of Yuki Tsunoda produced an impressive driver and made his one-stop strategy work to perfection to jump up into tenth.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were the biggest losers of the Grand Prix as the pairing fell out of the points after a tyre gamble saw both drivers shine in yesterday’s qualifying session but saw the duo lacking a set of harder tyres for the safety-car interrupted race.

2025 Emilia Romagna GP – The Top Three

2025 Emilia Romagna GP Winner – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB21 – (25 Points):

“The start wasn’t particularly great, but I was on the outside line, the normal line and I just thought well, I’ll try and send it, and it worked out well. Then I could unleash the pace, we were good on our tyres. The VSC was handy, even on the hard tyre our pace was strong. The restart we managed well and brought it home. Incredibly proud of everyone, the car has performed well, and the execution of the whole race was very good.”

2^nd Place – Lando Norris, #4, McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL39, +6.109s – (18 Points):

“It was a long race, not easy to overtake but we did what we could. Max drove a good race; they were quick today – probably a little quicker. A good race, for us as a team second and third is great as they were too good for us today. With George, he was struggling with the tyres a lot, so it is a situation you have to take advantage of, we are racing – but he is a good racer, a fair racer.”

3^rd Place – Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team, Mercedes, MCL39, +12.956s – (15 Points):

“Just braked too early, it was a good move by Max as well. Disappointing obviously, and then we made a few wrong calls after that. Not our best Sunday, lots to look at and review after that one. We’ll see what we can do a bit better. It was tricky, the VSC was perfectly timed for Max and Lando, and I had used both my tyres at that point, so it made my last race start tricky, I didn’t have enough grip so third it is.”

Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio Del Made In Italy E Dell’Emilia Romagna 2025 Race Results Classification (63 Laps)

https://www.formula1.com/en/results/2025/races/1260/emilia-romagna/race-result

Click here for the 2025 Formula 1 World Driver’s (Top 10) and Constructor’s Championship Standings

Round eight of the 2025 FIA Formula One World Championship returns to the famous streets of Monte Carlo in Monaco for the Formula 1 Tag Heuer Grand Prix De Monaco 2025 from Friday May 23-Sunday May 25.

@OscarPiastri pips @Max33Verstappen to #ImolaGP pole by 0.034s. #F1

#Formula1 AWS #EmiliaRomagnaGP 2025 Preview.