Piastri beats Verstappen and Russell to pole in dramatic Imola Qualifying session

McLaren driver Oscar Piastri charged to pole position for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the end of a dramatic, incident-filled Qualifying session in Imola, narrowly getting the better of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Mercedes’ George Russell.

Verstappen had led the way after the opening Q3 runs but Piastri turned the tables with his final lap to the chequered flag – a stunning effort of 1m 14.670s putting the championship leader three-hundredths up on his Dutch rival.

Russell took third after opting for medium tyres, rather than softs, on his last lap, with Lando Norris having to settle for fourth in the second McLaren ahead of Aston Martin racer Fernando Alonso (another to go with the yellow-marked compound).

Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon impressed for Williams on their way to sixth and seventh respectively, while Lance Stroll (also on mediums), Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly rounded out the top 10 positions.

Ferrari had a nightmare first home Qualifying session of the season as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton – having complained of brake issues throughout practice – both missed the Q3 cut en route to 11th and 12th places.

It was also a disappointing run for home favourite Kimi Antonelli, who could not match team mate Russell’s pace as he exited in 13th. Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto and F1 returnee Franco Colapinto rounded out the order in the second Qualifying segment.

Colapinto had posted a quick enough lap to reach Q2 but was not able to take part in it after the Argentinian youngster crashed during the final moments of Q1, giving his Alpine mechanics work to do overnight.

Liam Lawson and Nico Hulkenberg just missed out on joining their respective Racing Bulls and Kick Sauber team mates in Q2, leaving them in P16 and P17 for Sunday’s race – the German compromised by a mistake and trip through the gravel on his final lap.

Haas were another team to experience a tough day, with both Esteban Ocon and Ollie Bearman dropping out in Q1, the latter following a lengthy review into whether he got an improved lap time in just before the red flags were thrown for Colapinto’s shunt – the final answer being no.

Yuki Tsunoda had his own enormous accident in the early minutes of Qualifying and fell at the Q1 hurdle – the Red Bull racer sliding off the track at high speed, launching into the barriers and flipping over before thankfully hopping out of his massively damaged car.

AS IT HAPPENED

Q1 – Verstappen fastest as Tsunoda and Colapinto crash

After three practice sessions topped by McLaren, attention turned to the all-important Qualifying hour at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari – and whether anyone could get close to the papaya team’s drivers in Piastri and Norris.

There was also plenty of intrigue over the tyre strategies that would be adopted across Q1, Q2 and Q3, given most drivers’ struggles to make improvements between the yellow-marked medium C5 and the red-marked soft C6 in final practice.

As the green light switched on at the end of the pit lane to mark the start of the first Qualifying phase, plenty of cars soon hit the track to get some banker laps in – a potential traffic headache on the way as the 20-strong field searched for clean air.

Drama ensued only a few minutes into the session, though, when Tsunoda suffered a scary crash through the Variante Villeneuve section, causing significant damage to all four corners of his upgraded Red Bull and bringing out the red flags.

Replays showed the Japanese driver taking too much kerb at the entry, losing control of the car and slamming into the barriers on the outside of the track – triggering a violent barrel roll before he landed upright in the gravel trap and walked away from the scene.

Following a delay for barrier repairs, Qualifying resumed with Albon provisionally leading the way on softs from Alonso, Hamilton, Sainz and Leclerc, while half of the grid – including the likes of Piastri, Norris and Verstappen – had not yet posted a lap time.

When the session got back under way, with Colapinto being noted for entering the fast lane before the resumption time was announced, fans enjoyed a proper wave of green and purple sector times and the first moves from the anticipated front-runners.

Verstappen continued his apparent overnight progress to go quickest from Piastri on a 1m 15.175s, followed by an inspired Alonso, Russell, Gasly and Norris. At the other end of the order, both Sauber drivers, Haas cars and the sidelined Tsunoda sat in the drop zone.

Then came the final, decisive sequence of runs to settle who would reach Q2, with Bortoleto the driver who managed to escape – at the expense of Lawson – before Colapinto triggered another red flag with a nasty crash of his own exiting the Tamburello chicane.

Hulkenberg joined Lawson in the bottom five after running wide at Rivazza and losing a time for track limits, followed by Ocon and Bearman – who appeared to get a lap in before the second red flag, only to lose it after checks – and Tsunoda.

Knocked out: Lawson, Hulkenberg, Ocon, Bearman, Tsunoda

Q2 – Sainz stars as both Ferraris and Antonelli drop out

After another delay while Race Control worked out whether Bearman’s final time should stand or not, Verstappen continued where he left off in Q1 by going quickest on the opening Q2 runs, before Norris and then Piastri (1m 15.241s) moved to the fore.

Russell held fourth position from the Ferraris, with Hadjar seventh over Alonso, Sainz and Antonelli, leaving Stroll, Gasly, Albon and Bortoleto in the drop zone for the second runs – Colapinto already eliminated from the action after his Q1 off.

Aston Martin opted for a different approach as the cars rolled back out of the pit lane – both Alonso and Stroll emerging on sets of medium tyres, rather than softs. The remaining drivers, minus the aforementioned Colapinto, stuck with the new C6 compound.

As the clock ticked down and the chequered flag came out, Sainz delivered a magical final lap to go fastest on a 1m 15.198s – putting him just ahead of Piastri, Norris, Russell and Verstappen, with the updated, medium-shod Aston Martins also safely through.

This spelt disaster for Ferrari drivers Leclerc and Hamilton and Mercedes rookie Antonelli, who were dramatically denied Q3 spots by Gasly, Hadjar and Albon and wound up 11th, 12th and 13th respectively, ahead of Bortoleto and Colapinto.

Knocked out: Leclerc, Hamilton, Antonelli, Bortoleto, Colapinto

Q3 – Piastri beats Verstappen in thrilling conclusion

Piastri and Norris stated their intentions in the early minutes of Q3 by dipping into the 1m 14s bracket and forming a McLaren 1-2 – the Australian’s benchmark time of 1m 14.821s putting him around a tenth-and-a-half up on his team mate.

However, Verstappen and Red Bull meant business as well, with the reigning four-time World Champion shooting to the top of the times on a 1m 14.772s, and only adding to the anticipation for the final runs to the flag.

When those arrived, Piastri, as he has done on so many occasions this season, hit another level to clock a 1m 14.670s and edge out Verstappen, while Russell climbed to third after switching from soft tyres to mediums.

Norris could only manage fourth, some three-tenths away from Piastri, with Alonso (also on mediums) taking fifth, and Williams impressing again thanks to Sainz and Albon placing P6 and P7 on the timesheets.

Stroll was the third and final medium-tyre runner in Q3 in eighth, as Hadjar and Gasly completed the top 10 for Racing Bulls and Alpine after those early Qualifying exits for Ferrari and Antonelli.

Key quote

“It was a great session, a very tough session with all the delays, red flags, and then also the tyres, the tyres were very, very tricky today,” said Piastri. “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, put the car in a nice window. We’ve been trying a few different things this weekend and we got into a nice place for Qualifying. The lap was good, I had about four cars [around me] in the last corner which didn’t help, but it was enough, so I’m very, very happy with the job we’ve done and excited for tomorrow now.”

What’s next

The 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix is set to begin at 1500 local time on Sunday. Head to the RACE HUB to find out how you can catch the action from Imola.