Motorsport Week’s F1 2025 Emilia-Romagna GP Driver Ratings

The 2025 Formula 1 season began its European stretch with an intriguing race at Imola – but who thrived and who didn’t on potentially the sport’s last visit to the venue?

Max Verstappen: 9.5

Verstappen and Imola have become a match made in heaven. The Dutchman has won at the venue on F1’s last four visits and has led 98 per cent of the laps in that time. 

Verstappen qualified on the front row and stunned Piastri into the Tamburello chicane with a bold move around the outside to steal the lead away. 

From that point on, the reigning champion was untouchable out front, at no point looking under pressure. 

Even with a bit of luck around the timing of the virtual safety car, Verstappen had the race under his control from the moment he took the lead and never looked back.

Yuki Tsunoda: 4.5

While Tsunoda seems to have settled into the Red Bull better than Liam Lawson, he’s clearly still not comfortable, as his crash in qualifying showed. 

Taking too much curb on the entrance to the Villeneuve chicane led to a scary accident where his RB21 flipped over across the tyre barrier, landing in the gravel.

The damage meant Tsunoda had to start from the pitlane, and while he did recover to score a point in 10th, that was a disappointing return in a winning package.

Lando Norris: 7.5 

Norris had a mixed weekend in Imola, qualifying outside the top three for the third time in the last four weekends, but he recovered strongly to second on race day. 

The Briton has struggled more in qualifying trim compared to Piastri so far in 2025, which was evident again in Imola. However, on race day, Norris was arguably the quicker McLaren, even with his preferential strategy.  His second place cuts his deficit to Piastri down to 13 points and a much-needed confidence boost heading to Monaco.

Oscar Piastri: 7.5

Championship leader Piastri took a third pole of the season at Imola, pipping Verstappen by just 0.034 seconds on Saturday.

However, a misstep from McLaren strategy-wise on race day meant Piastri would finish the race in third, behind race winner Verstappen and team-mate Lando Norris. 

Piastri pitted early onto a two-stop, which meant that he couldn’t pit under the final Safety Car, meaning he had to restart on 20-lap-old Hard tyres, leaving him vulnerable to the fresh tyre-shod Norris on the restart as the two McLarens swapped places late on.

Lewis Hamilton: 8

Having started from P12, it was a patient race for the seven-time World Champion, but one that paid off. The Briton started on the Hard tyres, going long into the race and taking advantage of both Safety Cars. Hamilton spent a lot of the race stuck behind Antonelli, but he took his chances swiftly when the time came to finish fourth, his best non-Sprint result for the Scuderia, in front of the Tifosi, whom he branded as “magical”.

Charles Leclerc: 9

After a horrific qualifying that saw both Ferraris knocked out in Q2 in 11th and 12th, Sunday in Imola was a big turnaround, but not the ideal one in Leclerc’s case.

Leclerc made the most of an early undercut to jump from ninth to a net four. However, his work was slightly undone by a poorly timed Virtual Safety Car.

This was followed by a slight mix-up on the pitwall, which saw Leclerc left to defend his position on heavily worn Hard tyres after the Safety Car.

Despite this, Leclerc put up a staunch defence against the Williams of Alex Albon, who was on fresh tyres on the restart. Eventually, Leclerc would have to let Albon go, with Ferrari not wanting to risk a penalty for forcing the Anglo-Thai driver through the gravel, although the Monegasque claimed that’s how the rules stated racing should be. 

Alex Albon: 8.5 

Albon has been the figurehead of the Williams revival in 2025, and Imola was no different. 

A seventh-place start and a fifth-place finish don’t do his performance justice, with Albon running inside the top four until the Safety Car hampered his race.

Carlos Sainz: 7.5

Another impressive qualifying from the Spaniard was slightly undone on race day, as, like a few others, Williams’ early prediction of a two-stop race turned out to be incorrect. 

An eighth-place finish puts him in the shadow of his team-mate at Williams; however, it was another solid performance for his new team and more important points picked up. 

George Russell: 7.5

It was a weekend of two halves for Russell as another strong qualifying meant he lined up third, but it was downhill from lights out as Mercedes struggled in the heat.

The Briton put up a valiant defence against Norris but couldn’t hold him back. However, the Mercedes didn’t seem to have the race pace compared to Russell’s qualifying laps.

This, combined with the decision not to stop under the final Safety Car, left Russell on the defensive across the final 10 laps, resulting in a seventh-place finish, his first time outside of the top five in a competitive session in 2025.

Kimi Antonelli: 5

It was not the first home race that Kimi Antonelli would have dreamed of. Being knocked out in Q2 in only 13th place on Saturday followed up by his first DNF on Sunday.

Isack Hadjar: 8

Hadjar once again showed how strong he’s been in 2025 as he qualified and finished Racing Bull’s home race inside the points in ninth place.

Running long on the Medium tyres, Hadjar was running comfortably in the top five at one stage, able to keep the Mercedes of Antonelli at bay with ease. 

Another weekend without a major flaw, despite a moment in free practice, Hadjar is quickly emerging as the most impressive and consistent rookie of the year. 

Liam Lawson: 5.5

Lawson’s early demotion from Red Bull seems to still be affecting the New Zealander’s season. A Q1 exit and a 14th-place finish summed up another drab weekend.

Fernando Alonso: 7.5

A first top-five qualifying since China 2024 for Alonso gave Aston Martin hope for strong points at Imola, but the aforementioned poor strategy choices unravelled its hopes. 

Alonso missed out on a top 10 finish, unable to beat Tsunoda to the final point on the last lap, leaving him frustrated throughout the race as a huge opportunity slipped away. 

Lance Stroll: 7

Stroll backed up Alonso’s exploits in the upgraded Aston Martin as he qualified eighth. But with the Silverstone-based squad committing to a two-stop with both cars in the opening stages, like Alonso, the Canadian was resigned to not converting that to points.

Oliver Bearman: 6.5 

It was a slightly controversial weekend for Bearman, as his time that was good enough for Q2 was deleted due to the stoppage caused by Tsunoda’s Red Bull, despite him finishing the lap three seconds before the red flag was thrown. 

From that point on, it was guaranteed to be a difficult weekend, with his race compounded by a slow pitstop which put him a lap down, eventually finishing 17th. 

Esteban Ocon: N/A 

It was a weekend of lows for the Haas team, and especially for Ocon.  Another Q1 exit, compounded by an early DNF meant that Imola was a race to forget for the Frenchman. 

Pierre Gasly: 6.5

Gasly was unable to capitalise on another impressive Q3 appearance in 2025, finishing 13th on a weekend where Alpine had confidence over a better result. 

Franco Colapinto: 4.5 

With all the news off the track heading into the Imola weekend being around Colapinto replacing Jack Doohan at Alpine, it was an inspiring debut for Colapinto in the A525.

A crash at the Tamburello chicane on his first run in Q2 preceded a one-place grid penalty following a rule breach during the Q1 red flag. 

Nico Hulkenberg: 7

Despite suffering another Q1 exit, Hulkenberg raced well and was in contention for a points finish at times in Imola, eventually missing out and finishing 12th. 

Gabriel Bortoleto: 6

Managed to outqualify his veteran team-mate once again, however, the race went away from him and he eventually finished last of the cars that were classified. 

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