Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying: Piastri denies Verstappen, Norris flops
F1 NewsSaturday, 17 May 2025 at 22:08
Oscar Piastri took pole for the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix denying Max Verstappen by the slightest of margins as Lando Norris was only good for fourth.
Piastri was the first driver out on track for the final runs and had to deal with some traffic towards the end of his lap but he did enough to keep Verstappen at bay by 0.034s, despite the reigning Formula 1 champion looking good for another pole throughout qualifying.
The talk ahead of qualifying was about how the Soft Pirelli tyre, the debuting C6 compound, would perform especially as the final practice session showed that the Medium could be a better and faster tyre.
In the end, all teams ran with the Softs throughout except for Aston Martin who made Q3 using the Medium in their final Q2 runs, while Mercedes took a gamble with George Russell in the final Q3 run.
As a result, Russell was third fastest, 0.137s off the pace but ahead of a fourth-placed Norris by 0.155s.
In fifth place was a resurgent Fernando Alonso who made the best out of his heavily upgraded Aston Martin AMR25. However he was over seven tenths off the pace. Nevertheless, an improvement for the embattled British team and their veteran driver.
Williams once again showed decent form as Carlos Sainz was sixth fastest with his teammate, Alex Albon behind him in seventh, the pair separated by 0.041s.
Lance Stroll also made Q3 for Aston Martin and was eighth fastest ahead of Isack Hadjar who was ninth in the VCARB but was left ruing a mistake on his final lap.
Pierre Gasly was tenth fastest in the Alpine which was ok but a bit of a disappointment given the strong form they showed from the start of the weekend.
An epic session
Qualifying for the Emilia Romagna GP was far from straight forwards and the session was marred with crashes, uncertainty and some shocking exits.
It all started with Yuki Tsunoda who crashed while on his first flying lap in Q1, his car going out of control and rolling over before settling in the barriers with the driver pointing upwards thankfully and he could exit on his own.
It was another save from the Halo as Tsunoda would have been hurt had the safety device not been there.
Towards the end of Q1, Franco Colapinto crashed his Alpine as well but made Q2 with the time he set before that. He was classified 15th but we have to see of he starts there or from the pitlane which is where Tsunoda will probably start.
Colapinto's crash brought a Red flag which cost Oliver Bearman his final lap as he failed to complete it before the session was stopped.
Haas challenged the decision which meant Q2 was delayed but in the end Bearman was eliminated.
However the big shock from Q2 was the exit of both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in the Ferrari - 11th and 12th respectively - which was a huge disappointment for the Tifosi. The Red cars simply did not have the pace on the day having struggled with brake issues during the weekend.
To make matters worse for the Italian fans, their latest hero, Andrea Kimi Antonelli did not make it out of Q2 and will start his home race from 13th on the grid.
What the top three said
"It was a very tough session with all the delays, the red flags," Piastri said after qualifying. "And then also the tyres, they’ve been very tricky today. I think after yesterday, everyone thought the C6 was not too bad, and then today it was a real mystery.
"The team did a great job, got the car into a nice a window. We’ve been trying a few different things this weekend and we got it into a nice place for qualifying.
"The lap was good. I had about four cars in the last corner, which didn’t help, but it was enough. So, very happy with the job I’ve done and excited for tomorrow now," he concluded.
Verstappen blamed the tricky C6 tyres after finishing P2, he commented: "Everything was going really well, just this softest compound is very difficult to keep them alive around the lap. Sector one was good and then the tyres again fell away from me from there onwards by tiny margins.
"It was cool but you could see George set his lap on the medium, so maybe they were a bit too soft for this track and for us at least it was a bit more difficult to extract the most out of it. I felt happier on the medium.
"But the race is tomorrow, that is where you score the points, so that is where we have to focus on. But I do think today was a very good day for us," the Red Bull ace concluded.
"We were going for it," Russell said, explaining the reason behind Mercedes' choice of using the Medium tyre in the final part of Q3.
"We thought maybe the medium tyre would be a fast one, and it turned out to be a good choice. Of course, a small compromise for tomorrow, but it was worth it to be back in the top three.
"Really happy with the performance – very close to Oscar. It’s always a surprise when you’re so close to the McLaren because they’re so quick at the moment," the Briton concluded.
Q1: Huge crashes for Tsunoda and Colapinto
The track cooled down ahead of qualifying by 5 degrees compared to FP3 registering 41 degrees Celsius while air temperature was 23 degrees.
Cars lined up in the pitlane awaiting the green light for the first part of qualifying where traffic is expected to play a key role.
The Saubers, Williams, Aston Martins and Haas were out first on Soft tyres, and were followed by the Ferraris - also on the red-walled tyres.
Gabriel Bortoleto went fastest from Nico Hulkenberg with Esteban Ocon third, but Bearman then split the Saubers in second. Alonso then went fastest with Stroll third.
Hamilton went second fastest behind Alonso while Albon jumped to the top while Leclerc was fifth as Red Bull and Mercedes sent out their drivers. McLaren and Racing Bulls followed at the 13-minute mark.
With 12 minutes remaining, the Red flags came out and the cause was Tsunoda who lost control of his RB21 riding the kerbs hard at Turn 6.
It was a huge crash as the car rolled over but settled with Tsunoda able to climb out of it on his own. He was ok but the car wasn't.
The only driver to have set a lap time before Tsunoda's crash were: Albon - Alonso - Hamilton - Sainz - Leclerc - Bortoleto - Stroll - Bearman - Hulkenberg - Ocon.
The rest had a little over 12 minutes to set lap times and try to make Q2.
Gasly went fastest on his first attempt after the restart, but then Alonso dropped him with Antonelli going third as Russell went second fastest but dropped to third as Verstappen went fastest, over half a second faster than Alonso.
Norris only managed fifth on his first attempt after an error at Turn 7, while Piastri managing second but over three tenths slower than Verstappen.
With five minutes remaining, the top 15 were: Verstappen - Piastri - Alonso - Russell - Gasly - Norris - Antonelli - Sainz - Leclerc - Albon - Hamilton - Stroll - Hadjar - Colapinto - Liam Lawson.
With a little over three minutes, driver set out on track for the final run in Q1 and in the dying moments of the session Colapinto brought out the Red Flag once again.
The Argentine took too much kerb coming out of Turn 3 and ended up in the barriers. He made Q2 though as he was 14th.
In the end Verstappen was fastest with a lap time of 1:15.175, over three tenths faster than Piastri in second while Alonso was third.
The rest were as follows: Stroll (on mediums)- Russell - Norris - Gasly - Antonelli - Sainz - Leclerc - Albon - Hamilton - Hadjar - Colapinto - Bortoleto.
Eliminated in Q1 were Lawson who missed out by 0.039s and was 16th fastest ahead of Hulkenberg in 17th and Ocon in 18th.
Bearman was 19th having had his final flying lap deleted for not completing before the Red Flag caused by Colapinto. A pity as he had a decent lap.
Tsunoda was classified 20th but will most probably start from the pitlane given the rebuild his car will undergo in Saturday night.
Bearman remained in his car as Haas discussed his lap with race control which meant Q2 was delayed but in the end he was knocked out.
Q2: A disaster for Italy!
After a 15-minute delay as race control and Haas debated whether Bearman made his lap before the Red Flag, Q2 started with the Briton out of contention.
Bortoleto, who would've been eliminated had race control reinstated Bearman's lap, was the first to hit the track in Q2.
Bortoleto posted the first timed lap, went fastest, but the Verstappen took that position with Leclerc second and Hamilton third. Russell then took second.
Then Norris went fastest over a tenth faster than Verstappen as Piastri was finishing his first flying lap and went faster than his teammate by 0.020s.
The order after the first runs was: Piastri - Norris - Verstappen - Russell - Leclerc - Hamilton - Hadjar - Alonso - Sainz - Antonelli.
In the drop zone: Stroll - Gasly - Albon - Bortoleto - Colapinto.
Replay showed Albon having a huge moment of oversteer dipping a wheel into the gravel. He was lucky not to crash.
With five minutes remaining, the second runs of Q2 began with Aston Martin heading out on Medium tyres with both cars.
In the end, Sainz delivered a blistering lap, 1:15.198, to lead the way into Q3 and 0.016s ahead of Piastri in second and 0.063s ahead of Norris in third.
Worth noting that the Spaniard benefited from a tow from Sauber's Bortoleto.
The rest of the top ten: Russell - Alonso - Stroll - Gasly - Hadjar - Albon; as both Astons made it on the Medium tyre.
But then came the shock, both Ferraris were out with Leclerc 11th fastest ahead of Hamilton in 12th while another shock was delivered to the Italian crowds as Antonelli was 13th.
Bortoleto and Colapinto were 14th and 15th.
Q3: Verstappen falls short by the slightest of margins
No delays this time and the remaining ten drivers made their way out on track all running the Soft tyre with no exceptions.
Norris started the initial runs and went fastest as Piastri was behind him and dropped him to second as Verstappen was on the way and beat both McLarens to first place.
It was provisional pole for Verstappen as the rest were as follows: Piastri - Norris - Russell - Hadjar - Stroll - Alonso - Sainz - Albon - Gasly.
With less than four minutes remaining from Q3, the final hot laps started on Saturday afternoon at Imola.
Both Aston Martins took the Medium tyre again and this time Russell in the Mercedes followed suit. No risk, no gain.
Piastri started his final hot lap first as Norris followed. Piastri went to the top but Norris' lap was not a good one and remained in third.
Verstappen followed came then but missed out by 0.034s to Piastri. Second was the best the Dutchman could deliver.
Russell went third fastest on Mediums dropping Norris to fourth as Alonso was a respectable fifth in the upgraded Aston Martin and on used Medium tyre, with Sainz sixth fastest.
Albon was seventh on another strong afternoon for Williams as Stroll was eight with Hadjar in ninth ahead of Gasly in tenth.
Emilia Romagna GP Qualifying Classification
loading
Latest News
Loading
