2025 Emilia-Romagna GP talking points: Max Verstappen at his best, Lewis Hamilton shines for Ferrari, Franco Colapinto struggles on return, and more

On Sunday, May 18, F1 returned to Europe for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix to get the second triple-header of the 2025 season underway.

The Imola Circuit served up yet another dramatic round of F1 action, with some incredible overtakes, remarkable recovery drives, and two Safety Cars causing plenty of chaos up and down the grid.

Sports News Blitz’s F1 writer Henry Eccles takes a look at five key talking points to come out of the 2025 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. 

Max Verstappen at his very best 

With Imola usually being a difficult track for overtaking, a good start was crucial for Max Verstappen against the pacier McLaren of Oscar Piastri. 

And as he has done so often in a temperamental RB21, the Dutchman delivered. 

Distracted by the advancing George Russell on the inside of Turn 1, Piastri never saw Verstappen coming.

The Red Bull driver’s expert car control saw him squeeze round the Aussie to take the lead. 

It was a vintage Verstappen overtake - aggressive, daring and clinical - already being hailed as one of the great Turn 1 passes.

Similar to previous seasons, the four-time world champion shot off into the distance, and from then on in, his lead was never under threat, despite interruptions from a VSC and Safety Car. 

Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner praised Verstappen’s sensational ‘win it or bin it’ move, and expressed optimism that the team are starting to turn things around. 

“It’s an important win for the team and at this stage of the championship. It feels like we’re building a little bit of momentum behind the scenes.

“It’s a timely win championship-wise. It keeps the pressure on and keeps us in touch.”

The Milton Keynes team brought minor upgrades to Imola, having already upgraded the RB21’s floor at the last round in Miami - all part of a package that hopes to close the gap with McLaren in terms of adaptability and tyre degradation.

“Definitely we’ve managed to put some performance on the car and get it into a better window,” Horner said.

“Since Brazil last year, which was a wet race, that’s the first time I can remember in a long time we’ve had the pace to really pull away and out-deg the McLaren. That’s very encouraging.”

After the race, McLaren Team Principal Andrea Stella admitted his team simply did not have enough pace to match Verstappen, believing Red Bull have ‘taken a step forward’ in terms of their development. 

Stella ought to be feeling the pressure, with Verstappen now only 22 points behind leader Piastri in the Drivers’ standings, and the next race at Monaco, where the Dutchman has won two of the last four Grand Prix.

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Mercedes suffer ‘worst day’ in years

The words of Mercedes’ George Russell, whose lack of pace saw him finish P7, outside of the top five for the first time in 2025. 

The Briton’s weekend was looking promising until the Grand Prix, qualifying in P3 ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Russell’s start off the line was rapid too, on another day he may well have taken the lead if it were not for Piastri leaving him with nowhere to go into the first corner. 

Having failed to take full advantage of his start, the 27-year-old’s race then began to unravel. 

Having chewed up his used Medium tyres early on to keep Norris behind, Russell was forced to pit earlier than his rivals, opting for fresh hards but now finding himself stuck down the grid. 

He then lost further ground when those ahead of him were able to save time during their pit stops under the VSC after Haas’ Esteban Ocon hit engine issues on Lap 29. 

While Russell was unlucky in terms of the safety car timings, it was a familiar problem that really let him down at Imola - Mercedes’ performance in warm weather conditions.

"We knew it was going to be challenging - we've always been slow when it's hot out there and today it was hot," Russell said post-race.

"Right now I don't have any answers, it was in terms of pace probably the worst day we've had as a team in a couple of years. We need to go back to the drawing board."

Russell’s team-mate, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, also had a day to forget at his first home race in F1, as a throttle issue forced the 18-year-old to retire on Lap 46.

Antonelli had been running in the points throughout, but despite expressing disappointment in retiring early, he still seemed to be more positive than Russell on overall race pace, having recovered well from P13 until his mechanical issue.  

Lewis Hamilton spares Ferrari’s blushes

Starting in P12 after a disastrous qualifying performance, Lewis Hamilton made a classic comeback to take P4 in his first race in Italy for Ferrari. 

It was his best Grand Prix result for the Scuderia this season, and the first time he has beaten team-mate Charles Leclerc in a full race.

Having made impressive moves on Antonelli and Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar earlier on, the seven-time world champion took both Alex Albon and Leclerc’s positions in the space of just one lap to secure P5 in the race’s latter stages.

The Briton said racing in front of the Tifosi was ‘a highlight of the year so far’ and that there were ‘lots of positives’ to take from Sunday’s race.

"I did think we would make an improvement this weekend with something I've fixed. And I think there is more to come.

"I don't remember the last time I had a race like that moving forwards. I'm sure there was one last year but this was different because I'm in the red car.

“To finally have that connection, that synergy with the car, was a really great feeling."

And yet despite Hamilton’s optimism, there remains a feeling that his performance at Imola only papers over the cracks at Ferrari, perhaps in a similar fashion to his Sprint win in China earlier this season. 

After all, the Briton’s post-race positivity came just a day after he said he was ‘gutted and devastated’ with his qualifying performance, and team-mate Leclerc cut a frustrated figure despite his own recovery from P11 to P6 in Sunday’s race. 

The Monegasque driver lost out heavily thanks to the two Safety Cars, and after being passed by Hamilton, he then had to give up P5 to Albon after he was deemed to have forced the Thai-Brit driver off the track three laps prior. 

On starting P11 in the first place, Leclerc said: “I just cannot accept the situation we are in.”

And when asked whether he had any hope of a repeat of last year’s iconic victory at Monaco this weekend, his answer was unequivocal: “No.” 

Regardless, the recovery drives at Imola were a major positive for Ferrari, particularly for Hamilton as he moved into P6 in the Drivers’ standings, now just eight points behind his team-mate. 

Franco Colapinto struggles on F1 return 

Although new Alpine chief Flavio Briatore has now denied there being a five-race window set for Franco Colapinto to impress at the French team, the young Argentine could not have had a worse start to his F1 return. 

During practice at Imola, Colapinto drew the ire of a few drivers by getting in the way during their flying laps. 

In qualifying, as he fought to get into Q2, the 21-year-old took too much kerb on the exit of Turn 3 and spun out, hitting the barriers in what was a heavy shunt. 

To make things worse, Colapinto then received a one-place grid penalty for an earlier pit lane offence after Yuki Tsunoda had what was quite a scary crash of his own.

Thankfully, both drivers made the grid the next day, but while Tsunoda did well to recover a point in P10 from his pit lane start, Colapinto failed to impress and finished where he started in P16.

Perhaps with Saturday’s crash still in the back of his mind, Colapinto’s start was cautious and he unluckily lost further ground by pitting just one lap before the VSC caused by Ocon’s retirement. 

In the end, it is safe to say the Argentine did not meet any of the three objectives  Briatore had given him before the race weekend: be quick, don’t crash, and score points. 

After the race, however, he was hopeful that results will come in time: 

“I think better tracks are coming for us, especially Monaco. It is a place which requires very high confidence,” Colapinto said. 

“I’m not quite there yet, I’m still learning more and more each time I am in the car so I’ll build it up and I’m looking forward to it next weekend.”

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Aston Martin’s promising weekend falls apart

The race weekend started off so well for Aston Martin, who had brought major upgrades with them to Imola.

For the first time this season, both cars made it into Q3, thanks to the smart strategic decision to save an extra set of Medium tyres for qualifying.

With Fernando Alonso starting in an excellent P5, and team-mate Lance Stroll not far behind in P8, a first double-points finish of the season for the Silverstone team was certainly on the cards.

But it all started to fall apart midway through thanks to the VSC, as both Alonso and Stroll had already pitted for Hard tyres on what looked like a promising one-stop strategy.

While other cars were able to get onto fresher tyres and also save time during their pit stops under the VSC, it did not take long for both drivers to fall out of the points positions. 

And with no other tyre compounds to rely upon under the second Safety Car, triggered by Antonelli’s retirement, Aston’s rivals again could pit for fresher rubber and the chance of points slipped away completely. 

Alonso’s frustration was heard over the radio, telling his radio engineer that he is the ‘unluckiest driver in the **** world.’ 

But after the race, despite the P11 and P15 finishes for Alonso and Stroll respectively,  a more measured Alonso could take some positives from the upgraded car’s performance. 

“It was just unlucky. The car was super today, we followed the McLaren and Russell at the beginning of the race, which was definitely a good surprise for us to be that competitive at the front of the field.

“Even at the end, I overtook three or four cars in nine laps. It’s something we are not used to this year, so definitely a step forward.”

The two-time world champion will be hoping to score his first points this season for Aston Martin as F1 returns to Monaco at the weekend.

Fans will be able to catch all the action at F1’s ‘Jewel in the Crown’ on Sky Sports F1 between May 23-25, with the Monaco Grand Prix set to start on Sunday at 2pm UK time.

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