Nina Farina won the inaugural Formula One Grand Prix at Silverstone, going on to become the sport’s first World Champion. Seventy-five years and five days later, the ten teams gathered at another historic venue for the FORMULA 1 AWS GRAN PREMIO DEL MADE IN ITALY E DELL’EMILIA-ROMAGNA 2025. The time, the driver currently leading the World Championship lined up alongside the reigning World Champion on the front row of the grid. There were 63 laps to decide who would cross the finish line first.
Max Verstappen had a poor start from the front row, while George Russell had an excellent start from P3 and pulled alongside Verstappen on the long run to turn two. Russell had a good run, but Oscar Piastri defended the inside line heading into the second corner. Verstappen was extremely brave on the brakes, overtaking Russell and Piastri around the outside of turn two with a brilliant move to take the lead.
The opening lap was very orderly for the rest of the field. The leading pair created a large gap to Russell in a distant P3. Before long, Russell was under pressure from Lando Norris behind. He made many attempts to overtake in the second corner, but Russell did an excellent job defending to keep the McLaren behind. Norris finally got the job done on the inside of turn six on lap 12, promoting himself to P3.
Russell pitted at the end of the lap for hard tyres, in what was forecast to be a one-stop race. He rejoined the race behind Charles Leclerc, who had pitted a lap earlier. Leclerc hadn’t had a great weekend thus far, failing to make Q3. But since Sunday was stronger, overtaking some drivers earlier in the race. One of those drivers was Pierre Gasly on the third lap. Leclerc put his car on the inside of turn nine. Gasly attempted to hold on around the outside but ran wide and bounced through the gravel.
Piastri responded to the pit stop, swapping to the hard tyres on the following lap. The undercut was extremely powerful at this circuit, thanks to the very long pit lane. He rejoined the race comfortably ahead of Leclerc and Russell. Verstappen opted not to cover off the pit stop, which would benefit him greatly later on.
Piastri was left to slice through the cars ahead, the likes of Yuki Tsunoda—who failed to hold up the McLaren driver, despite being instructed to do so by the Red Bull pit wall—, Oliver Bearman, Franco Colapinto in his first race for Alpine, Lewis Hamilton, and Kimi Antonelli. Piastri began to slowly nibble into Verstappen’s pit window.
McLaren responded by pitting Norris on lap 29, potentially trying to predict Verstappen’s pit strategy to perform the undercut on the leading Red Bull. But it was extremely poor timing for the Brit, with the virtual safety car being deployed as Norris exited the pit lane. It was for Esteban Ocon, who had parked his car on the inside of turn seven with some sort of mechanical issue.
This greatly benefitted the drivers who had yet to pit, including Verstappen and Alex Albon, who found himself in P2. Lewis Hamilton was also helped, having started the race on the hard tyres. But there were also a lot of other pit stops made under the VSC, with some teams opting to make a second pit stop on some of their cars, like Leclerc and Russell. Piastri also made a second pit stop, voluntarily giving up track position to Norris and Albon, slotting into P4.
After the race resumed, Piastri eventually overtook Albon on lap 40. However, it looked like Verstappen and Norris were too far ahead of him to challenge. The podium appeared to be set, but there were still 23 laps remaining, and anything can happen in Formula One.
Kimi Antonelli became the second driver to retire from the race on lap 46, parking in the same corner as Ocon, albeit further down the straight. This threw a wrench in the race, with the full safety car being deployed. This closed the massive margins that some drivers had managed to create through the race, including race leader Verstappen.
This also gave many drivers a chance to make another pit stop. Verstappen changed to another set of hards, and Norris responded to do the same. Norris rejoined the race behind his teammate, coming out alongside Albon. It was very close to call who was ahead at the safety car line, although it wouldn’t matter because Albon pitted the following lap. Hamilton also made another pit stop, replacing his mediums with a set of hards. Leclerc had also wanted to pit, but was told he didn’t have any used tyres remaining that would make it to the end of the race. He even suggested a bold move of putting on soft tyres for the closing stages, but Ferrari felt there were too many laps remaining to take that gamble.
The race finally resumed after a lengthy delay, creating a ten-lap sprint to the line. With a mixture of old and fresh tyres making up the top ten, it was set to be an entertaining end to the race.
Leclerc looked strong in the opening sector, having a look on the inside of Norris in the second corner. But, before long, the difference in tyre age made a big impact. Hamilton was the first of the top drivers to get a move done, overtaking Russell only a few laps after the restart. Albon quickly began to apply pressure on Leclerc. With only four laps remaining, Albon tried to overtake the Ferrari around the outside of the second corner. The duo were side-by-side in the corner, but Albon ran out of space as the left-hander turned into a right-hander. Albon was forced to skip over the gravel, losing a position to Hamilton in the process. With the threat of the stewards looking into the incident, Leclerc gave the position back to Albon on the final lap, hoping to avoid any penalty.
At the front, it was Max Verstappen who would cross the finish line first to take his second race victory of the season. Lando Norris stood on the second step of the podium, having taken P2 from Oscar Piastri with a very close move in the first chicane shortly after the safety car returned to the pit lane. Lewis Hamilton and Alex Albon made up the top five.
Imola marks the start of the season’s second triple-header stint. Next up, the drivers will navigate the narrow streets of Monaco. The race will be on May 25, with the new required two-stop potentially stirring things up.
| 1 | O. Piastri | 146 |  | |
| 2 | L. Norris | 133 | -13 | |
| 3 | M. Verstappen | 124 | -22 | |
| 4 | G. Russell | 99 | -47 | |
| 5 | C. Leclerc | 61 | -85 | |
| 1 | McLaren | 279 | | |
| 2 | Mercedes | 147 | -132 | |
| 3 | Red Bull | 131 | -148 | |
| 4 | Ferrari | 114 | -165 | |
| 5 | Williams | 51 | -228 | |
