Coming into qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, McLaren was the talk of the paddock after Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris set the top two fastest lap times during practice. It looked like Max Verstappen would threaten pole position after setting the first quickest Q3 time, but Piastri’s final flying lap put him 0.034 seconds ahead of the Dutchman.
This marks Piastri’s third pole position of the season and comes at a crucial time, given his 16-point lead in the driver standings. Verstappen will complete the front row, while George Russell and Lando Norris will line up third and fourth. Meanwhile, Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso and Williams’ Carlos Sainz will make up the third row. Because Imola isn’t an easy track for overtaking, it placed more importance on qualifying, and the midfield teams could make gains this weekend with how the qualifying order ended up.
Qualifying lasted longer than initially scheduled, after lengthy delays came from two Q1 red flags. Yuki Tsunoda triggered the first after he rolled on the barriers, and Franco Colapinto ended the session with a wreck of his own. However, he set a fast enough time before that to advance to Q2.
And the next qualifying session carried its own shocks. Alpine’s Pierre Gasly knocked Kimi Antonelli out in Q2, and Aston Martin gambled with its tires for the final Q2 lap — and it paid off. Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll nudged the Ferrari duo of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton out.
Come Q3, the Aston Martins looked more alive than they had in recent race weekends. Stroll and Alonso sat sixth and seventh after the first runs, and Verstappen sat on provisional pole ahead of the McLaren duo. The Dutchman may have had the fastest time, but still looked for ways to improve. He asked for a minor flap adjustment after reporting on the radio that the final chicane was tricky.
Heading out for the final flying laps, Mercedes and Russell took a strategic gamble, swapping for medium tires while the McLaren duo and Verstappen went out on soft tires. The Briton didn’t have much to lose, given who was left in Q3.
📻 Piastri after being told he had pole: “Huh! I was going to lose my shit if that last corner had cost me pole. Well done everybody, it was not the easiest session. But nicely done, very very nicely done.” #F1 #ImolaGP
— Luke Smith (@LukeSmithF1) May 17, 2025
Here’s how everyone qualified.
- Oscar Piastri, McLaren
- Max Verstappen, Red Bull
- George Russell, Mercedes
- Lando Norris, McLaren
- Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
- Carlos Sainz, Williams
- Alex Albon, Williams
- Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
- Isack Hadjar, Racing Bulls
- Pierre Gasly, Alpine
- Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
- Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari
- Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes
- Gabriel Bortoleto, Sauber
- Franco Colapinto, Alpine
- Liam Lawson, Racing Bulls
- Nico Hülkenberg, Sauber
- Esteban Ocon, Haas
- Ollie Bearman, Haas
- Yuki Tsunoda, Red Bull
Ferrari’s struggles continued in its home country (ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP via Getty Images)
Q2: Leclerc, Hamilton, Antonelli, Bortoleto and Colapinto eliminated
After two red flags and delays, Q2 started nearly an hour after qualifying began, and the second session of the top 15 started with some uncertainty. The FIA was reviewing whether Bearman’s final Q3 lap was valid, and when it came close to time for Q2 to begin, Sauber sent Bortoleto to wait in the pit lane, which was allowed. However, when Q2 started, the stewards had still not communicated a decision.
McLaren bounced back to a healthy 1-2 on the early Q2 laps, with Piastri initially ahead of Norris, but neither driver had topped Verstappen’s time in Q1. Both Ferrari and Mercedes drivers looked preliminarily safe ahead of the final flying laps, although Antonelli was sitting P10 ahead of the last runs. The bigger surprise was Hadjar sitting in fourth before the final laps of Q2.
But the top 10 turned on its head with those final Q2 laps. Sainz set the quickest time, lofting him ahead of Piastri and Norris. Aston Martin gambled and put on medium tires, which saw Stroll and Alonso knock out the Ferrari duo, while Gasly nudged out Antonelli.
Only Williams, McLaren and Aston Martin saw both of their drivers advance to Q3.
Red Bull will have lots of work to do on Yuki Tsunoda’s car (Sipa USA)
Q1: Lawson, Hülkenberg, Ocon, Bearman and Tsunoda knocked out
It didn’t take long for the first red flag to wave — and it wasn’t the last. With just over 12 minutes to go in Q1, Tsunoda suffered a major wreck, the Red Bull driver rolling into the barrier. The Japanese driver exited the car (Red Bull reported he is okay), but the RB21 faces a hefty repair job.
When the session was red-flagged, only 10 drivers had set lap times, with Albon sitting in P1 thanks to a lap that was 0.074 seconds quicker than Alonso’s. The initial laps from the Ferrari duo placed Hamilton third and Leclerc fifth, split by Sainz. However, it all comes with the caveat that the McLaren and Mercedes drivers, among others, had yet to set a time.
After the final flying Q1 laps, Verstappen set the fastest time for that session, followed by Piastri and Alonso, Norris down in sixth and the Ferraris outside the top 10. Bearman appeared to have snuck out of the drop zone, posting a lap that was the 10th fastest, but it was later deleted because he did not finish under green flag conditions. Alpine’s Colapinto triggered the second red flag, which ended the session.
Colapinto, in his first race back on the grid after replacing Jack Doohan, suffered a massive wreck at the end of Q1 that will leave Alpine with plenty of repairs. The late portions of his last stint in F1, when he replaced Logan Sargeant at Williams during the second half of the 2024 season, were riddled with costly accidents, the biggest ones happening during the Sao Paulo GP weekend. It’s not the start the Argentine driver needed to begin this fresh chapter.
(Top photo: David Davies/PA Images/Alamy Images/Sipa USA)