Oscar Piastri topped the first practice session of the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix with teammate Lando Norris chasing him in second while Max Verstappen struggled.
Piastri led Norris by just 0.032s while Carlos Sainz was a surprise third in the Williams, 0.052s off the pace of the Australian.
It was a tight pack in the top six as George Russell was fourth fastest in the Mercedes, 0.002s behind Sainz while seven-time Formula 1 champion Lewis Hamilton was 0.042s behind his former teammate in fifth as Pierre Gasly was sixth, 0.155s behind the Briton.
Then came Verstappen, seventh fastest and over three tenths off the pace in his upgraded Red Bull RB21 as he reported lack of rear-end grip during the session.
Alex Albon confirmed Williams' strong start as he was eighth fastest and 0.017s off the pace of Verstappen.
The session was a bit strange as it saw some unfamiliar names in the top ten Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg were ninth and tenth respectively. The Brazilian crashed in the dying moments of the session.
Charles Leclerc was 12th fastest while Kimi Antonelli was 13th fastest in his debut Formula 1 race at home while Franco Colapinto was down in 17th on his Alpine debut.
Aston Martin brought with the their heavily upgraded car had Lance Stroll in 11th while Fernand Alonso was 14th. The Spaniard was not running the upgraded car though. He was running the spec Aston Martin used in the Miami Grand Prix.
On a final note, it will be interesting to see how the C6 Pirelli compound - which made its debut at Imola - performs as it may be even a challenge for the drivers to keep it alive for a whole lap let alone do a race stint on it.
Buildup towards FP1
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix marks the start of the European leg of the 2025 Formula 1 season and the first race in a triple header that will see the sport head to Monaco and then Barcelona.
McLaren, once again, are seen as favorites and come to this race with wild speculations regarding the trick or tricks they are employing to enjoy such good tyre management that saw them take a one-two in the Miami Grand Prix, over 30 seconds clear of Mercedes in third with Russell.
Verstappen will be looking to take advantage of any mishaps by McLaren and both their drivers to try and stay in contention for the drivers' crown, although he is aware that Red Bull Racing will have no silver bullets at Imola this weekend.
This weekend will be Hamilton's first appearance in front of the Tifosi as a Ferrari driver, while Antonelli will make his home race debut with Mercedes, so the spotlight will be bright on those two.
Another driver in the spotlight will be Colapinto, who makes his debut with Alpine, replacing Jack Doohan, with the Emilia Romagna GP being the first of five races the Argentine will have to prove his worth for the Renault-owned team that will race this weekend under the leadership of Flavio Briatore after the departure of Oliver Oakes.
In terms of tyres, Pirelli, for the first time this season, have brought their C6 tyre compound as the Italian tyre maker shifted towards the softer part of their range.
The compounds available are the: C4 (Hard), C5 (Medium), and the C6 (Soft).
The driver will sample the C6 tyre for the first time this season, as none of them ran it in pre-season testing in Bahrain.
In terms of car upgrades, all teams except for Williams and Sauber have new parts on their cars ahead of this weekend at Imola.
McLaren have modified rear and front suspension elements while also bringing a track-specific rear wing and beam wing.
Ferrari also have track-specific rear and beam wings in addition to a revised scoop geometry and winglet arrangement as part of their regular development cycle.
Red Bull Racing have a revised Coke/Engine cover that includes a revised radiator duct inlet and sidepod shape to suit.
The Milton Keynes squad also brought new fairing around one suspension member on the rear as well as revised wheel bodywork inlet and exit ducts.
Mercedes have reprofiled suspension fairings on the front end, a new front wing with reprofiled elements, and a new Coke/Engine cover with subtle changes.
Underperforming Aston Martin have a considerable upgrade to their AMR25 this weekend, starting with a Halo with revised mounts and fins.
They also have a new floor body, floor edges, floor fences, and a new diffuser bolted to the AMR25. They also have a revised Coke/Engine cover as well as a new beam wing aimed at reducing drag.
Alpine have a reprofiled front wing with a revised flap as well as a revised Coke/Engine cover.
Haas also have a decent upgrade with a new floor body, floor edge, and diffuser. The rear corner of their car will feature updated ancillaries and IB drum face shape. The lower rear suspension fairing shape is also modified.
FP1 Session Highlights
The session started in clear sunny conditions with track temperature registering 40 degrees Celsius while the air temperature was 19 degrees.
Most of the driver opted to started on the Soft compound, the C6, as this was the first time they used it this year.
Bearman was first out on track followed by Sainz in the Williams as Colapinto soon joins them kicking off his Alpine foray.
The Argentine has the old version of Alpine's front wing as Gasly has the new one.
Alonso and Leclerc, on the other hand, almost come together. The stewards have a look at the incident and decide not to take any action.
Soon Bortoleto asked his team to check the ride height as his car was "bouncing like crazy" while Leclerc ran wide dipping two tyres in the gravel coming out of Turn 15 after messing up his line in Turn 14.
Verstappen, on the other hand, is still under the radar with four laps only in the first 20 minutes. He was 18th fastest at the time.
The track was evolving quite fast as the minutes ticked away with the names on the timing screens getting reshuffled continuously.
Gasly soon provided positive feedback about his car for the team just after he posted the second fastest time, a little over 20 minutes into the session.
Leclerc has another moment, his car snapping as he came out of the final corner. He complains: "Helmet lift is horrible. The screen is just too small. There is no difference."
Tsunoda had a moment with the Alpine of Colapinto going into Turn 6. The former made sure to show he wasn't happy.
Meanwhile Russell was reporting about his teammate's car saying there was lots of bottoming and plank wear on Antonelli's car in Turns 4 and 5. Team leadership at its best!
Hulkenberg reported that he had a helmet visor tear-off stuck in his rear wing. Hamilton on the other hand complained about his car's brake saying: "The car doesn't want to stop."
Tsunoda had to back off while on a flying lap after running through traffic. Hulkenberg complained about Hamilton going too slow.
The German said: "It's so dangerous when you go over the hill and he's going slow, Hamilton."
Colapinto, on the other hand, ran wide and went into the gravel a bit - 15 minutes from the end.
Albon was out of shape going into the first chicane, hard on the kerbs and then wide on the exit. He also ran wide in the final corner. Leclerc then stirred up the gravel coming out of Turn 15.
Verstappen then reports some struggles in the car, he said: "I can't rely on the rear. It feels like I'm drifting everywhere."
The Dutchman then ran wide coming out of the final corner.
In the final ten minutes, the team started long runs on the new C6 tyres as they tried to gather data on how it degrades.
The Red Flag came out in the final three minutes of the session as Bortoleto crashed coming out of Turn 18 and ended up in the barriers.
Emilia Romagna GP FP1 Classification
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