Formula One F1 - Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, Italy - May 18, 2025 Red Bull's Max Verstappen passes the chequered flag to win the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Pool via REUTERS/Luca Bruno
IMOLA, Italy (Reuters) -Max Verstappen took a dominant victory at Imola on Sunday to celebrate Red Bull's 400th grand prix and end Formula One leader Oscar Piastri's run of three wins in a row for McLaren.
Australian Piastri started on pole but finished third, overtaken at the start around the outside in a brilliant move by Verstappen and then passed by teammate Lando Norris on fresher tyres seven laps from the end.
Piastri's championship lead over Norris was trimmed from 16 points to 13 after seven rounds.
The victory was Verstappen's 65th, second of the season and the four-times world champion's fourth in a row at the Italian circuit near Bologna after 2021, 2022 and 2024. There was no race in 2023 due to flooding.
"The start itself wasn't particularly great but I was still on the outside line, the normal line, so I was like 'well I'm going to try and send it around the outside' and it worked really well," said the Dutch driver.
"Of course, that unleashed our pace because when we were in the lead, the car was good. I could look after my tyres."
Team boss Christian Horner described Verstappen's attitude as "win it or bin it".
BRAKED TOO EARLY
Piastri had started the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix as favourite for a fourth win in a row, and fifth in seven races but events went against him.
A virtual safety car, triggered by Esteban Ocon stopping his Haas halfway through the race, came after his first early pitstop.
"It's never a great day when you start first and finish third," said Piastri, who felt he had opened the door to Verstappen by braking too early.
"You're going to have tough days in the championship, and this is clearly one of them. So as long as we learn the lessons, that's all I can ask."
A later safety car after Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli's home debut ended by the side of the track, bunched up the field again with Verstappen and Norris stopping for fresh tyres and Piastri staying out.
Verstappen, now only nine points behind Norris, was never in any real danger when the safety car returned to the pits and he took the chequered flag 6.109 seconds clear of the Briton.
"We had a good little battle at the end between Oscar and myself which was tense, but always good fun," said Norris, who confirmed there had been no team orders for Piastri to cede position.
"A good race. For us as a team, second and third is great. Of course you would love to be up there fighting against Max but they were too good for us today."
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton finished a surprising fourth in his first race in Italy for Ferrari after starting 12th following a qualifying nightmare and then making the tyre strategy work for him.
The 40-year-old, winner of the Shanghai sprint, passed teammate Charles Leclerc and was closing on Piastri as he scored his best result so far this season in a regular grand prix.
"I've always loved when you'refighting from further back and coming through," he said. "That's always such a better feeling than starting first and finishing first."
UNLUCKY ALONSO
Alex Albon was fifth for Williams with Leclerc sixth after having to hand back the place for forcing the Thai off the track.
George Russell started third but ended up seventh while Carlos Sainz was eighth for resurgent Williams.
Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar was ninth and Verstappen's teammate Yuki Tsunoda took the final point for Red Bull after starting in the pit lane following a big crash in Saturday's qualifying.
Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto, making his Alpine debut after replacing dropped Australian Jack Doohan, started and finished 16th.
Aston Martin's promise, after Fernando Alonso qualified fifth, faded as the safety cars played havoc with the team's strategy.
"I'm the unluckiest driver in the world," said the 43-year-old double world champion, who has yet to score this season and finished 11th.
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ken Ferris, Pritha Sarkar and Toby Davis)
