F1 News: Oscar Piastri wins pole for 2025 GP of Emilia Romagna

Points leader McLaren driver Oscar Piastri turned a lap of 1m14.670s to win the pole position for the 2025 GP of Emilia Romagna Formula 1 race at Imola.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

“It was a great session but a tough session with all the delays and red flags,” said Piastri. “And with the tires as well, today the C6 was a real mystery. The lap was good, I had about four cars in the last corner which didn’t help.

“I wasn’t thrilled to be the first car on track, you lose the slipstream but you don’t have any dirty air. That’s what we chose to do, we have enough pace to be able to do that and the team did great.”

Last year’s race winner Max Verstappen wrestled the Red Bull sled to 2nd fastest, just 0.034s behind Piastri’s superior McLaren.

“I think everything was going very well, but the softest compound – it is hard to keep them alive and they fell away from me,” said Verstappen. “But the race is tomorrow, that is what we have to focus on as I don’t think today was a very good day for us.

“I hope we pick up a bit of pace and look after our tires a bit better [tomorrow].”

Mercedes driver George Russell used the faster medium Pirelli tires to pull himself up to third fastest, 0.137s behind Piastri.

“We were going for it, we thought maybe the medium tire would be a fast one and it was a good choice,” said Russell. “A bit compromised for tomorrow, but it was worth it.

“It was very challenging, opening the lap we nearly missed the flag! But really happy with P3, we could not have achieved much more today.”

Lando Norris was a disappointed 4th in the #4 superior McLaren, 0.292s behind his teammate Piastri.

Related Article: Formula 1 News: Norris tops practice 3 for GP of Emilia Romagna

Fernando Alonso also used the faster medium tires to qualify 5th in the #14 Aston Martin, 0.761s behind Piastri.

Ferrari had a nightmare first home Qualifying session of the season as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton were out in Q2, finishing 11th and 12th, much to the despair of the Ferrari fans.

Young Italian Kimi Antonelli was a disappointing 13th in the second Mercedes, this being his home track as he lives just 30 minutes away.

Yuki Tsunoda had a big crash in Q1 bringing out the first red flag.

YUKI TSUNODA WITH A MASSIVE CRASH EARLY IN QUALIFYING 😳

He was able to get out of the car on his own. pic.twitter.com/gEBuGVAyEh

— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) May 17, 2025

Franco Colapinto also brought out the red flag in Q1, wadding up his Alpine against the barriers.

Massive crash for Franco Colapinto! 💥🚩 Lost it and slammed into the barriers — red flag out as marshals rush in 😳 Thankfully, he’s out of the car#F1 #ImolaGp #Imola #F1jp #Formula1 #MaxVerstappen #YukiTsunoda #oscarPiastri #mclaren #Redbull #Ferrari #FrancoColapinto #crash pic.twitter.com/Awc85x74sO

— FirstSportz F1 (@FirstsportzF1) May 17, 2025

Red Bull and Alpine might both have to break curfew tonight to get those cars ready to race tomorrow.

While Williams continued to impress by getting both cars into Q3, what about Aston Martin? They have nailed their strategy, running the hards in FP3 to save some mediums – and used those to good advantage in Q2 to get both cars into Q3.

It is rare that the mediums are faster than the softs, but such are the temperatures here that that was the case. It means they have no fresh mediums for the race, but fortunately, they have a set that are only three laps old to use.

And with grid position king here, that was a risk worth taking today.

2025 GP of Emilia Romagna Qualifying Results