F1 News: 2025 GP of Emilia Romagna Post-Qualifying Quotes

All ten Formula 1 Teams plus tire supplier Pirelli provided quotes after qualifying for the 2025 GP of Emilia Romagna at Imola.

Oscar Piastri will start tomorrow’s Made in Italy e dell’Emilia-Romagna GP from pole position. On his final run, McLaren’s Australian driver demoted Red Bull’s Dutchman Max Verstappen by just 34 thousandths of a second: 1’14”670 for the Drivers’ championship leader, 1’14”704 for the reigning world champion.

McLaren Formula 1 Team

Oscar Piastri (1st, 1:14.670): “It’s always a great feeling to be on Pole. It was a really good session, tougher with the Red Flags, but I am very happy with the job we’ve done. The tires have been trickier today, but the team did a fantastic job to get the car into a nice window. I’m excited for tomorrow.”

Lando Norris (4th, 1:14.962): “A frustrating day for me, the car was good so it’s disappointing not to qualify higher. I’ll work hard tonight with the team to see where we can fight to create opportunities to move forward in tomorrow’s race. We should have strong race pace and there’s still plenty to play for.”

Andrea Stella, Team Principal: “Today’s Qualifying was a very tight session, which is what we expected on a fast, flowing circuit with high-speed corners. There is little to choose between McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes once again. In Suzuka and Saudi Arabia, Max Verstappen had a few milliseconds’ edge on us; here today, Oscar had a few milliseconds on Max and took a great Pole position. Lando was in the hunt for Pole, but lost a little of his rhythm on that final run where everyone is trying to find an extra tenth. It demonstrates that we still have a bit of work to do improving the feeling in the MCL39. We think we’re in a strong position with race pace for tomorrow – but we are not expecting an advantage like Miami. Here in Imola, track position will be much more important, and similar to Suzkua, we’re expecting a tight race that may be decided by small differences in strategy. It should be an exciting Emilia-Romagna GP.”

Scuderia Ferrari HP

Charles Leclerc (11th, 1:15.604): “On a technical track like this one, everything has to be perfect, and today it showed. It’s disappointing, not just for us, but also for our tifosi who come here to support us with so much passion. This gives us the motivation to come back tomorrow and give it everything. I’ll do a reset tonight and tomorrow I’ll fight to bring home the best result we can with what we have at the moment.”

Lewis Hamilton (12th, 1:15.765): “A tough one today. The car felt good overall, but we just didn’t have the grip we needed on the final lap in Q2 and that cost us. This circuit makes overtaking a real challenge, so we know tomorrow won’t be easy, but we’ll dig deep as a team and explore every option tonight. To the tifosi, we know this isn’t the performance we wanted at our home race, but we’ll give it everything we’ve got and see what we can do.”

Frédéric Vasseur, Team Principal: “Today, thousands of tifosi were here to support us and we did not get the job done so we cannot be satisfied with our result. It was a very tough day for us and, as was the case in Miami, we were not able to improve our times on the new tires, doing our fastest lap (in Q2) with the first set from Q1. The tire situation was strange for everyone today, but it seemed to affect us more than the others and I also think we didn’t execute the session as well as we could have done. Tomorrow, it will be up to us to try and see what we can do. Even if we had good race pace on Friday, here is not the easiest place to overtake so it will be a challenging afternoon and we will probably have to take some risks, specifically in terms of the strategy. We will focus on that now and try and do our best for the tifosi tomorrow.”

Oracle Red Bull Racing

Max Verstappen (2nd, 1:14.704): “It was a good start and I am pleased to be starting on the front row tomorrow. First of all, the most important thing is that Yuki is okay, so that is good, especially after a crash like that happens. Today, to get P2 it was overall a good result and I think we improved a lot from yesterday. The car was a lot nicer to drive and we did some good work overnight and made positive developments. I am pretty happy with the balance of the car and we put it in a much better window and saw it really come alive. The tires overheated a bit more than we would like; it was the first time with this tire and they were a bit too soft for us which impacted our performance a bit. As we went faster, the more they overheated so we couldn’t optimize the performance of the car as much as we would have liked. However, it was a good start and I am pleased to be starting on the front row tomorrow. The race will be a different story as McLaren’s advantage is in the race on the long runs and they are good at keeping the tires under control. We will see where we are with the pace but we will just focus on ourselves. We will aim to extract the most that we can out of the car and hopefully come away with a good result.”

Yuki Tsunoda (20th, No Time): “The car felt quick before and I know what went wrong and it’s just an unfortunate situation to be in. Thankfully, I am physically okay and feel fine. We made quite a lot of changes to the car from FP3 to Qualifying, I just overdid it and pushed too hard on the lap and took too much curb and lost the car. It is frustrating and unfortunately was a stupid mistake that has caused big work and effort for the mechanics. The car felt quick before and I know what went wrong and it’s just an unfortunate situation to be in. Big apologies to the team, and we will look at the damage and hopefully the car will be good for tomorrow in the race.”

Christian Horner, Sporting Director: “It was such a small margin for Pole but it’s good to be on the front of the grid and it sets us up well for tomorrow. An exciting Qualifying for Max. Another great performance. I seem to say it every week. He was close, it was such a small margin for Pole but it’s good to be on the front of the grid and it sets us up well for tomorrow. On the other side of the garage, yes, it was a big crash for Yuki, but the main thing is that he is okay. You can always fix a car but having said that, there is lots of work to do tonight for the mechanics. I think he got a little too much curb on the left-hand side. We have a lot of work to do but, as I say, we are all grateful that Yuki is ok.”

Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team

George Russell (3rd, 1:14.807): “I am happy with P3 today. The car felt really strong out there and I know I could have done even better if I did not make a small mistake on my first lap of Q3. The team made a great call by choosing the Medium tire for our second and final effort. Everything just came together on the lap, and I was able to put the tires in the right window. There may have been a little more time out there, but I don’t think enough to challenge the two drivers ahead of us. This circuit is one of the narrowest tracks on the calendar and it will be really tricky to overtake tomorrow. Fighting with the McLarens ahead will not be easy but we showed solid pace on our long runs in practice. If we’re able to perform in a similar manner in tomorrow’s race, then there is every possibility we can fight for the podium.”

Andrea Kimi Antonelli (13th, 1:15.772): “I am obviously a bit disappointed to qualify P13 for Sunday’s race. I really struggled to put everything together in my single laps on the Soft tire and it just did not feel quite right. It was really tricky to get the tires in the right window; I didn’t quite have enough grip, and I really struggled to get into a good rhythm. It is a real challenge to overtake on this track so P13 is not ideal. From what we experienced in practice though, I know that our long runs are strong. Hopefully we can utilize that pace to make up some positions and get into the points. We will be looking for any opportunities that may fall our way too. If we can take advantage of them, then we can still have a good afternoon. It is a shame to end today outside of the top 10 but the atmosphere has still been incredible. We will work hard overnight and come back stronger tomorrow.”

Andrew Shovlin, Trackside Engineering Director: “It’s obviously disappointing for Kimi that he didn’t make it through to Q3 in Qualifying, but we’ll look at why he’s struggled for pace here more than at some of the recent tracks. He’s not had the same confidence in the car that he had in Miami, but he at least had strong long run pace yesterday. Unfortunately, it’s not an easy circuit to overtake at so we’ll review all our options with the view to how we can get him into the points. We will stand ready to take advantage of any opportunities that come our way. George fared somewhat better, eventually securing P3 on the grid. We decided to try the Medium compound for the final run of Qualifying as it was looking strong on the Aston Martins. It also seemed to be working pretty well for us, and George was able to find a couple of tenths improvement and gained a place in the process. It’s difficult to know how the race is going to pan out tomorrow. The tires will need a fair bit of management to avoid overheating and there is also a high risk of incidents as the track is quite narrow and there are so many gravel traps. We’ll be doing everything we can to stay in the fight for a podium.”

Bradley Lord, Team Representative: “We have mixed feelings after today’s qualifying session. George delivered a smooth session and a really impressive final lap on the Medium tire to take P3; without a compromised outlap, and therefore cool tires in the opening corners, he could have fought for pole. We went into qualifying thinking that the Medium was a possible Q3 tire, and the Aston Martins’ performance in Q2 confirmed it was the way to go, with George using it to great effect. It was a more challenging session for Kimi. He never felt the grip he wanted from the tires and was also losing a little on the straights owing to a slightly higher downforce setup than George – but not seeing the expected gains in the corners. It was a tough pill for him to swallow to qualify P13 at his first home race, but we always say that these difficult moments are the ones where we learn the most, and no doubt that will be true for Kimi today as well; this is all part of the learning curve in his first season. The silver lining is that his race pace was very strong in FP2, so we can expect him to gain positions from where he is starting. Imola is traditionally a one-stop race, owing to the significant pitlane loss, but the softer tire compounds this year mean that isn’t a certainty in tomorrow’s race. We will be running the simulations this evening to see where we have opportunities to move forward tomorrow, and the race will be a good gauge of how much progress we have made in managing the tire temperatures on the long runs.”

Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team

Fernando Alonso (5th, 1:15.431): “Qualifying went better than we expected and it’s a great result for the team to have both cars in Q3. We introduced a new package this weekend and so far the results have been positive. We were quite competitive on both the Medium and the Soft tires, so we were able to try a different strategy throughout Qualifying. We have to keep our feet on the ground though and see how things go tomorrow in the race. I don’t think we are as fast as P5, so let’s see if we can keep these positions and score some points.”

Lance Stroll (8th, 1:15.581): “A good day for us qualifying in P8. It all came together in these conditions; we made the right tire choice with the Medium so that paid off and the nature of the track suits our car more. From what we can tell so far, the update looks like it’s having a positive impact so it’s an improvement, but there’s still lots more performance for us to unlock. Tomorrow we will have a better idea of how we look in terms of true pace and if we can hold position.”

Andy Cowell, CEO & Team Principal: “A tremendous team effort today brings us a well-deserved Qualifying result with Fernando in P5 and Lance in P8. The drivers did not put a wheel wrong with some sensational laps throughout all parts of Qualifying, making the most of a great car setup. The tire strategy was extremely well judged, too, and that tire preparation work started well before the event and paid off today. Securing our best Qualifying result of the year is a big boost for the 1,000 people in this team who have been working extremely hard to make improvements in all areas – not least with the updates we introduced here in Imola. We know how important Qualifying is at this track because overtaking is very difficult, however it’s the race result that yields championship points.”

BWT Alpine F1 Team

Pierre Gasly (10th, 1:15.787): “I am happy to be back in Q3 today but not so happy that we did not maximize our final run in that session with traffic management, which compromised our out lap. So with all things considered, we probably left a little bit on the table. That said, these are fine details for us to work out as a team and there is definitely potential in our package. The car has generally felt good here, especially after Miami. We managed Q1 and Q2 well but then we did not execute a good final run in Q3. Being almost last out of the pit lane did not help the tires on the out lap so we will learn together as a team and see what we can do better next time. We will take the fight to the cars ahead tomorrow. Strategy will be interesting and potentially quite varied up and down the grid. We will work out the numbers tonight and see what is doable on our side. We are in the mix from tenth place on the grid and the aim is to achieve some points by the checkered flag.”

Franco Colapinto (15th, No Time): “It was a tricky Qualifying today and not what we wanted. It was the first time I really arrived at the limit of the car, and I was pushing the limits a bit more this time. I decided to use the curbs more and to go for it, but it was just too much and I lost the rear. I’m very sorry to the team, it’s a lot of work in the garage tonight and it is obviously not great to start like this. However, overall, today I think the car was competitive enough to make it into Q3, I knew there was a lot more potential. I’ve been feeling more comfortable with the car and much more connected and I’ve really enjoyed working with the team. I’m learning more every lap I’m doing and tomorrow’s race is another opportunity to do more laps and continue getting used to this environment.”

Flavio Briatore: “It is positive to have one car again in Q3 this weekend. We were in the top-10 in the last few races apart from Miami, so it gives us confidence that we have a good car here capable of fighting. Looking at Pierre’s times from Q2 and out lap preparation, we could maybe have been further up. But overall, we are in a good place to fight in tomorrow’s race. Franco has been getting familiar with the car and doing a very good job with the team and engineers. With the cars being so close, he was pushing the limit and unfortunately lost the car. I spoke with Franco, and he will quickly put it behind him and come back strongly tomorrow. The team will get the car ready, review our options, and see what we can do in the race.”

MoneyGram Haas F1 Team

Esteban Ocon (18th, 1:16.613): “It’s been a frustrating weekend as a whole. We’ve done our homework in the best way possible, planned all the scenarios, and we were supposed to have a decent weekend here. We need to try and optimize things better, try and have smoother and cleaner weekends, and if we do so we should put the car back where it belongs which is in Q3 and fighting for points.”

Oliver Bearman (19th, 1:16.918): “From our side, quali went well and I have no clue what happened for me not to be in Q2. I didn’t see a red flag before I crossed the checkered flag, and the team saw the same from all the views they had, so I don’t know why my lap time wasn’t reinstated. It’s a shame as we’ve brought an update to Imola – which has been months in the planning – and I’ve had good confidence in the car, and now we’re very much out of position. It’s tough to overtake here, so we’ll have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.”

Ayao Komatsu, Team Principal: “Obviously this was a very disappointing qualifying. From yesterday and this morning, we knew it was tight, but I thought at least with one car we had the chance to get close to, or be in Q3 – so to have both cars out in Q1 is very disappointing. Conditions like the wind changed for Q1 so it was difficult, but I felt Ollie reacted very well to that, and to do a lap time like 1:16.077 – that’s a very good lap. That lap time was deleted however as Race Control deems that the red flag came out before he crossed the line, and our view is different. We have various evidence to back it up, so we’re talking to the stewards about it, but nothing changes this qualifying result. We’d like to understand how they came to that conclusion and are sticking to it. Clearly, they were discussing and debating it as the start of Q2 was delayed. For us, there’s overwhelming evidence to say that his lap time should’ve stood, so that’s our position currently, but with transparency we’d like to talk to the stewards about it. On Esteban’s side, he’s been struggling most of the weekend and yesterday we had a bit of an issue with car balance set-up, but then this morning from as far as I know, we didn’t and he just couldn’t quite get there. At the moment I don’t know if we have an issue or not, but we need to look into it.”

Visa Cash App Racing Bulls F1 Team

Isack Hadjar (9th, 1:15.746): “It’s really frustrating not having the possibility to do that last push lap, as I had one new set of soft tires left and I felt there was more to come in a car that has been awesome and always nice to drive this weekend. It was a good day today until my last lap in Qualifying. I don’t know why I lost the car in Turn 3 as it didn’t seem I took much curb. It’s really frustrating not having the possibility to do that last push lap, as I had one new set of soft tires left and I felt there was more to come in a car that has been awesome and always nice to drive this weekend. I have a nice feeling around this track and I think P5 was definitely possible today. Looking at tomorrow, I’m sure we’ll have to fight a bit, but the target is to get some points. The race pace looks pretty good, but it’s one of those tracks where it’s difficult to overtake, so it will be important to get a good start and then make it pay off with the right strategy call. I’m really happy with the team’s progress, and I wish I could have brought home a better result today, but we’ll keep working tonight to find the last few details ahead of the race.”

Liam Lawson (16th, 1:16.379): “This track is so exciting it raises the heart rate, it’s exciting for us to drive but it’s a compromised race now as it’s a hard track to overtake on. Not getting to do the last lap was a shame. We unfortunately missed out due to the red flag and it ruined our Qualifying. We did one run with a compromised out lap and we never got the opportunity to go again, it’s just one of those sessions. It’s one of the toughest Qualis, when you put the car on the limit there is no run off and if you go over it there is a price to pay, which we saw today with Yuki, I’m glad he’s okay. This track is so exciting it raises the heart rate, it’s exciting for us to drive but it’s a compromised race now as it’s a hard track to overtake on. A straight forward strategy will be hard, we will try and make something happen but it’s going to be a tough race.”

Tim Goss, Chief Technical Officer: “Today’s Qualifying session gave us many reasons to be positive, but ultimately we felt we didn’t quite get everything we deserved. Both cars put in a solid first run in Q1, but unfortunately were denied the possibility to consolidate their positions on the second run after the Alpine crashed out just ahead of us, ending the session. Isack passed through to Q2, but Liam was just denied the cut. The car showed its strengths as Isack progressed into Q3, only to then have a small ‘moment’ through the first corner sequence on his final hot lap causing him to have to abort the lap. He had to settle for P9 with his used tire run. On the positives, the aerodynamic updates have delivered, we qualify in the top ten, fifth place was within our grasp and our race pace in P2 yesterday looked very strong. We go into the race tomorrow with both drivers confident they can hunt down the cars in front.”

Williams Racing

Carlos Sainz (6th, 1:15.432): “We had a really strong Quali today! This is a high confidence track and I’ve been happy with the car since Friday. The lap in Q2 is testament to that confidence and I went into Q3 wanting to improve even more. We were last in the queue for the last run, trying to get a slipstream and maximize track evolution, but unfortunately, it didn’t pay off and my outlap was very compromised since we nearly didn’t make it to the start-finish line. Anyhow, I’m very happy with the overall situation and we need to feel proud of the performances we are showing as a team. We are in a good position for tomorrow; I hope we can fight as close to the top as possible and bring home some good points! Vamos!”

Alexander Albon (7th, 1:15.473): “Not bad, but definitely not my best. I struggled today and didn’t feel comfortable with the car. I’m honestly happy that I finished P7, but I felt like I couldn’t push that much. It was really easy to overdrive and I lacked a bit of the confidence needed to tackle the issues, but even on days like today when the car doesn’t feel great, we’re still quick. It’s a good sign!”

James Vowles, Team Principal: “A really great day for us. We have two cars in the top 10 and Carlos did an absolutely incredible lap in Q2 to put the car first, which was great to see. We knew it was only temporary, but it was still a huge reward for us as an organization. We go into tomorrow with a healthy amount of race tires; let’s see if that can be used to great effect. Let’s continue as we started and bring some points home with both cars tomorrow.”

Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber

Gabriel Bortoleto (14th, 1:16.260): “I’m really happy to have made it back into Q2 — it hasn’t been the easiest weekend so far. We’ve had clean sessions throughout, and unlike Miami, where we were confident about progressing, today was much more challenging. That said, everything came together for us. We maximized the car’s potential, stayed focused, and executed a clean run. Overtaking will be difficult here, so tomorrow’s race will come down to strategy — and maybe a bit of chaos up front. Either way, we’ll give it everything and see what we can achieve.”

Nico Hulkenberg (17th, 1:16.518): “For me it has been quite a challenging weekend so far. I did not find the right rhythm and connection to the car on Friday and Saturday which is crucial here at Imola. This old-school track is fun, but mighty fast and very unforgiving. If you touch the curbs just a little bit too much, the car gets unstable and you lose time. All things considered, my last lap was actually pretty good until the last sector, where my car snapped in Turn 17 and I went a little bit too wide. We will need some luck in the race tomorrow, because on a narrow track like Imola, overtaking chances are rare. We will look for any and every opportunity to maximize our potential, mindful of how unpredictable this race can be.”

Jonathan Wheatley, Team Principal: “First and foremost, I was relieved to see both Yuki and Franco walk away from their crashes today — those were big incidents. Once again this shows the importance of the progress we have made as a sport in terms of safety. As for our qualifying session, Nico improved his balance throughout Q1, but unfortunately made a small mistake into Turn 17 and was out. Gabriel, on the other hand, had clean runs all the way through to ultimately qualify P14. That said, we should not hide from the fact that we benefited from misfortune of several drivers. We`re being realistic about our chances tomorrow, but I know the team will look for every chance to make progress through the field.”

Pirelli

MARIO ISOLA – PIRELLI DIRECTOR OF MOTORSPORT

“This qualifying session needs to be analyzed carefully in terms of tire behavior, as it produced many interesting insights. Everyone was keen to see how the C6 would perform in qualifying, comparing it to the C5. From the initial data and listening to the immediate comments from the teams and drivers, we can say that the performance difference between the two softest compounds in the 2025 range is relatively small, which is what was predicted. What we saw today, on a track that didn’t evolve much compared to the first two hours of free practice, was that it wasn’t easy for the drivers to extract the full potential from the C6. Keep in mind that this compound had never been run on the 2025 cars and during the end-of-season test in Abu Dhabi, only eight of today’s 20 drivers tried it. So it’s likely that they need to get to understand it better in order to get the most out of it. This meant that some drivers preferred to go with the C5, a compound they know well, given that it was already the qualifying tire for the previous two races in Jeddah and Miami. They chose to sacrifice a bit of grip in exchange for the lap time advantage that comes from the predictability of a tire with which they have more experience and more data.

“As for strategy, the one-stop is still the most viable choice, especially on a track where overtaking is rather complicated, in part because there is only one DRS zone and also because this is the longest pit lane of the season in terms of time lost during a pit stop. Clearly, the combination of Medium and Hard, with a stop between laps 17 and 23, is the most likely. As an alternative, some drivers might prefer to go for a longer first stint, starting on the Hard, in the hope of an eventual Safety Car, in which case the switch to Medium would be between laps 37 and 43. A two-stop strategy is not out of the question in terms of total race time, but the factors just mentioned mean it is at a disadvantage. For anyone attempting this, the best combinations would be Medium-Hard-Hard.”