Oscar Piastri and McLaren will look to continue their great form when the seventh round of the 2025 Formula 1 World Championship, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, is held at the Imola Circuit in Bologna, Italy, on the afternoon of Sunday 18 May.
Piastri claimed a dominant victory at the previous round in Miami, outpacing and outsmarting Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen, before racing off into the distance to lead home a McLaren 1-2.
In the process, the Australian became the first McLaren driver to win three straight races since Mika Hakkinen in 1997-1998 and also opened a 16-point lead at the top of the Drivers’ World Championship over teammate Lando Norris. Verstappen is a further 16 points back in third place.
“I won the race that I really wanted to after a tricky day on Saturday [for the sprint race],” Piastri said. “To come away with a win is an impressive result. I was aware enough to avoid Max in Turn 1, and I knew I had a pace advantage. I was struggling on the hard tyres, but I had built a gap; there is still stuff to work on. We are constantly learning.
“Two years ago at Miami we were the slowest team. I think we were lapped twice. Now to have won the Grand Prix by over 35 seconds to third is an unbelievable result.”
Norris, coming home in second place, had a tough battle with Verstappen. The British driver took a jab at the four-time world champion, making their rivalry one to watch heading into Imola.
“Max put up a good fight as always, and I paid the price, but it’s the way it is,” Norris said. “What can I say? If I don’t go for it, people complain. If I go for it, people complain, so you can’t win.
“But it is the way it is with Max; it crashes or doesn’t pass. Unless you get it really right and you put him in the perfect position, then you can just about get there. I paid the price for not doing a good enough job today, but I’m still happy with the second.”
One team desperate for improvement at Imola will be Ferrari, who were way off the pace of even Red Bull and Mercedes at Miami. They weren’t helped by having a ‘team orders’ issue in regard to swapping positions between Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
“Most of the time I say something; today I don’t think I’ll say anything,” Leclerc said. “I think the story is going to be big enough already. We need to do better, that’s for sure. [Miami] was not ideal and was far from maximising our potential, but we’ve got to regroup as a team and be better.”
The Monegasque added, “I think we should have discussed a little bit more before doing the swap because you’re trying to go to the end with those tyres.
I’m trying to do a good job with my tyres, and then everything is tricky. I did not expect Carlos [Sainz Jnr] to be so close. All of this made the situation a bit trickier, but I think there’s plenty for us to look at.
As I said, we need to take a step, and we need to be robust enough that whenever we find ourselves in those situations, we do better.”
