Emilia Romagna GP 2025: Max Verstappen Takes Victory, Cuts Oscar Piastri's Lead in Driver's Championship

In a weekend that looked set for yet more McLaren domination, Red Bull's Max Verstappen took a big win at the Emilia Romagna GP 2025 to keep himself in touching distance of the fight for the Formula 1 world driver's championship. 

Verstappen took the win ahead of Lando Norris in second and Oscar Piastri in third, with a late Safety Car caused by Kimi Antonelli's Mercedes giving up on him proving crucial in the end. 

The timing of the SC was such that Norris had pitted one lap earlier whereas Piastri could not pit due to a lack of tyres as well as strategy issues. 

It gave Verstappen the win but any chance of Piastri, the leader of the world championship race, cutting his losses with second place was hit by Norris making an overtake on fresher tyres. 

The Dutchman remains in third place but is now only slightly behind Norris and could find himself in striking distance of the lead with another good result in Monaco and potentially Spain in F1's triple header. 

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Hamilton, Ferrari Leave Tifosi Impressed

The biggest gainers aside from the three at the top were Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari, who recovered well from a poor Saturday to finish 4th. 

To make things better for the tifosi, Charles Leclerc finished 6th to cap a strong showing for the Scuderia. 

Williams were the other team who would be pleased with their results as Alex Albon managed a 5th-place finish while Carlos Sainz ended up 8th. 

Mercedes were nowhere in the race as not only did Antonelli retire, George Russell could not maintain his impressive Saturday showing and was also hurt by the timing of the 2nd SC, ending the race 7th. 

There was also a virtual Safety Car earlier but that did not impact the race much, aside from giving a few drivers free pit stops. 

Isack Hadjar took a valuable two points for Racing Bulls with a 9th-place finish whereas Yuki Tsunoda took the final points position for Red Bull. 

What Next in F1? 

The turnaround time to the next races are short, as the series heads to Monaco in exactly a week for the next race before then heading to Spain the following week. 

Monaco might not see much in terms of car upgrades, but many teams are expected to bring upgrades to Spain thereafter.