McLaren locked to win the drivers' title? Not so fast. While McLaren clearly has the car that should be winning every race, Max Verstappen has no interest in what should happen. He won the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with ease.
Verstappen started second, but elbowed his way past Oscar Piastri on the race start going into turn two, boldly going by on the outside. He wouldn't relinquish the lead, and actually held an advantage north of 20 seconds after a stop under a virtual safety car.
It was an uncharacteristically interesting race at Imola, but it took the perfect storm to brew that up. A late safety car brought on by a loss of throttle from Kimi Antonelli, put some cars are fresh tires right behind cars on old hard tires.
In the race's closing laps, Lewis Hamilton got by George Russell and Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris (clearly not on his teammate's pace all day) got past Piastri, and Alex Albon got past Leclerc as well despite nearly completely going off.
Verstappen keeps his name in the title discussion
It feels idiotic to count Verstappen out of a five-peat, but the McLaren advantage on some weekends (plus Red Bull's own issues) has seemed insurmountable.
But when McLaren lands a punch, Verstappen has been able to hit back. Piastri holds firm with a 13-point lead over teammante Norris and 22 points ahead of Verstappen, but the Dutchman is still right there in the discussion.
Next week brings Monaco, a race where qualifying on pole means a likely victory if Verstappen gets the top grid spot. Overtaking is impossible, and he has one of the strongest pit crews behind him to deal with the new requirement for two stops.
If Verstappen wins and Piastri goes P2, we're quickly down to a 15-point lead. It's a matter of chipping away, and with Norris seemingly unable to string wins together (but he can take points of his teammate), who knows how that could play into Verstappen's favor.
Results of 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix
Position | Driver |
|---|---|
1 | Max Verstappen |
2 | Lando Norris |
3 | Oscar Piastri |
4 | Lewis Hamilton |
5 | Alex Albon |
6 | Charles Leclerc |
7 | George Russell |
8 | Carlos Sainz |
9 | Isack Hadjar |
10 | Yuki Tsunoda |
11 | Fernando Alonso |
12 | Nico Hulkenberg |
13 | Pierre Gasly |
14 | Liam Lawson |
15 | Lance Stroll |
16 | Franco Colapinto |
17 | Oliver Bearman |
18 | Gabriel Bortoleto |
19 (Not classified - DNF) | Kimi Antonelli |
20 (Not classified - DNF) | Esteban Ocon |
Drivers' standings after Imola (Round 7 of 24)
Position | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
1 | Oscar Piastri | 146 |
2 | Lando Norris | 133 |
3 | Max Verstappen | 124 |
4 | George Russell | 99 |
5 | Charles Leclerc | 61 |
6 | Lewis Hamilton | 53 |
7 | Kimi Antonelli | 48 |
8 | Alex Albon | 40 |
9 | Esteban Ocon | 14 |
10 | Lance Stroll | 14 |
11 | Carlos Sainz | 11 |
12 | Yuki Tsunoda | 10 |
13 | Pierre Gasly | 7 |
14 | Isack Hadjar | 7 |
15 | Nico Hulkenberg | 6 |
16 | Oliver Bearman | 6 |
17 | Fernando Alonso | 0 |
18 | Liam Lawson | 0 |
19 | Jack Doohan | 0 |
20 | Gabriel Bortoleto | 0 |
21 | Franco Colapinto | 0 |
Constructors' Standings after Imola (Round 7 of 24)
Position | Team | Points |
|---|---|---|
1 | McLaren | 279 |
2 | Mercedes | 147 |
3 | Red Bull | 131 |
4 | Ferrari | 114 |
5 | Williams | 51 |
6 | Haas | 20 |
7 | Aston Martin | 14 |
8 | Racing Bulls | 10 |
9 | Alpine | 7 |
10 | Kick Sauber | 6 |