Race report
Polesitter Oscar Piastri of McLaren had a better initial start than second-place Max Verstappen of Red Bull, who himself was challenged by the fast-starting George Russell of Mercedes. However, whilst attempting to block Russell's challenge from the inside, Piastri left the outside of the track clear, allowing Verstappen to brake late and pass him for the lead around the outside of Variante Tamburello . On lap 3, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari challenged Pierre Gasly of Alpine for 9th place into the Piratella corner, causing Gasly to run wide and drop down to 14th. Toward the front of the field, Piastri's teammate Lando Norris had closed in and was applying pressure to George Russell, who was rapidly losing time to Verstappen and Piastri ahead. On lap 11, Norris passed Russell around the outside for 3rd entering Variante Villeneuve, putting himself 11 seconds behind Piastri, who himself was two seconds behind race leader Verstappen. [25] [26]
On lap 14, Piastri became the first of the front three cars to pit, having observed Leclerc making a successful undercut on several drivers including Russell, Carlos Sainz of Williams and Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin. Whilst Piastri, now in 11th place on fresh hard tires, was initially able to gain time on leader Verstappen, this progress halted when Piastri caught the cars that had not yet pitted, including Verstappen's teammate Yuki Tsunoda. While Piastri was able work his way through the traffic, due to his newer tires and faster car, he was now losing significant amounts of time to Verstappen who had still not stopped. However, this would become irrelevant on lap 29, when Esteban Ocon of Haas pulled over with a mechanical failure on the exit of Tosa corner. The virtual safety car (VSC) was deployed, allowing yet-to-stop drivers to gain time by pitting under VSC conditions. Verstappen duly took advantage of this, as did Sainz's teammate Alexander Albon , Isack Hadjar of Racing Bulls, Russell's teammate Kimi Antonelli and Leclerc's teammate Lewis Hamilton, who were able to maintain positions 4th–7th. Piastri decided to make a second pit stop when the virtual safety car remained deployed onto the following lap, however this caused him to lose position to Norris, who had pitted shortly before the VSC was deployed, and Albon, meaning he would be 4th when green flag running resumed. [25] [26]
Verstappen now led the race from Norris by around 20 seconds. On lap 34, Hamilton passed Antonelli for 6th place around the outside of Tamburello before executing the same move on Hadjar two laps later, promoting him to 5th. On lap 40, Piastri passed Albon to move back into 3rd place. On lap 46 Antonelli, who had by then fallen to 8th place, pulled off at Tosa. On this occasion, however, the race director opted to deploy the full safety car, meaning the field would be bunched up for a restart. This provided drivers another chance to make a cheap pit stop, with Verstappen pitting and maintaining his lead while Norris pitted and dropped behind his Piastri, who had chosen to stay out. This meant that when the race resumed on lap 53 Verstappen (on new tires) led Piastri on used tires, with Norris now in 3rd but on tires 15 laps younger than his teammate's.
Norris passed Piastri for 2nd around the outside of Tamburello on lap 58, leaving him 5 seconds behind race leader Verstappen. Leclerc had stayed out under the safety car, moving up to 4th position, but was now coming under immense pressure from Albon and Hamilton, both of whom were on new tires. On lap 60, Albon attempted to pass Leclerc around the outside of Tamburello but was pushed into the gravel trap, causing him to be overtaken by Hamilton. Hamilton then successfully executed the same move on Leclerc the following lap, allowing him to 4th fourth position and ensuring that, for the first time in 2025, he would be the highest finishing Ferrari driver during the Grand Prix. To minimise the risk of receiving a penalty for forcing another driver off the track, Leclerc waved Albon through voluntarily at the beginning of the final lap. [25] [26] Verstappen won the race with a 6 second margin over Norris, taking the 65th Grand Prix victory of his career as well as his 4th victory of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. [27]
Max Verstappen 
