Ranking the favourites to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

This has been hosted since 2020 and it is held in the lush green hills of the Italian region of the same name.

Previous winners have included Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton and plenty of racing fans will be heading to resources like Strafe.com to see which bookmakers feature free live streaming of this thrilling race.

So who is looking most likely to succeed over the 63 laps of this 4.909 kilometre circuit? Here are some pointers for who you should be backing when raceday takes place on 19 May:

It would be no surprise if Max Verstappen recorded his third triumph at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. The Dutch driver has already clocked up 136 points in the season so far and it's looking increasingly unlikely that anyone will catch him. While Verstappen has shown his discontent with the ongoing scandals at Red Bull, we’re expecting him to put in another race winning performance.

Although Lando Morris may have made a few ill-judged comments after his Miami win, there is no denying the fact that he is a star of the future. It’s going to be fascinating to see how his McLaren car handles the twists and turns of the Emilia-Romagna circuit, but most people would expect Norris to build on the 83 points that he has so far collected this season.

The pressure is always going to be on any Ferrari driver racing at an Italian race circuit, and hopes are high that Charles Leclerc might get his first Emilia-Romagna win this weekend. It’s been another positive season for Leclerc with the 98 points earned helping him reach third-place in the Driver’s Championship. So while there might be concerns about his future relationship with Lewis Hamilton, it could be a good Sunday for Leclerc.

Sergio Perez has so far clocked up 103 points in the current F1 season, and the Mexican driver can be counted on to put in another quality performance at Emilia-Romagna. Of course, you have to remember that mistakes will happen as was seen when Perez locked up at the Miami Grand Prix and nearly took out his teammate, Max Verstappen.

Most of the talk about Carlos Sainz is about which team he will be driving for in the 2025 F1 season. It’s widely expected that he won’t be driving for Ferrari anymore and this will make it something of an awkward race for the Spanish driver in front of the Italian crowds. Still, with 83 points picked up, Sainz can clearly drive, and the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix could give him the perfect opportunity to counteract his critics.

The Australian driver may have gone under the radar following the success of his McLaren teammate, Lando Norris, but he should still get a decent result in Emilia-Romagna. With 41 points on the board, Piastri has made a solid start in his F1 career and it’ll be interesting to see how he progresses in Italy.

Finally, it’s always sobering to analyse the prospects of Mercedes ahead of any race in this season. With just 37 and 27 points respectively, George Russell and Lewis Hamilton will have their work cut out to get anything out of the Emilia-Romagna circuit. Still, Hamilton has won this race once before and so there are no reasons why he can’t do the same again.