F1 heads to Imola for the Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari Circuit after a dominant win by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in Miami.
2025 Italian Grand Prix
Sunday 18 May 2025 – 15:00
Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari
McLaren’s dominance continued last time out with Oscar Piastri bagging his side’s fifth win of the campaign and his fourth of the season.
The young gun is really coming forward this campaign and now sits 26 points clear at the summit of the F1 Drivers’ Championship standings.
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix | Sunday 18 May | Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari
It seems like it’s going to be a season to remember for Piastri and the McLaren team, who will be looking to make it six wins from seven starts when the teams take to the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari this Sunday.
To Win Race Outright:
Lando Norris 5/4 | Oscar Piastri 27/20 | Max Verstappen 10/1 | George Russell 11/1 | Charles LeClerc 14/1 | Lewis Hamilton 20/1 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli 50/1
Previous Race
Another race, another solid showing from Piastri with the young Aussie dominant from start to finish out in Miami.
An early incident between Verstappen and Norris saw the latter run wide, with Kimi Antonelli moving into second and Piastri into third.
It wouldn’t take long for the current Drivers’ Championship leader to hunt Antonelli down, however, with the McLaren ace overtaking the Mercedes man early on during Lap 4. The hunt was then on to track down Verstappen.
While Piastri was taking on the reigning Drivers champion, his teammate Norris was making light work of the two Mercedes, overtaking Russell on Lap 8 and Antonelli on Lap 9.
Having piled the pressure on Verstappen for a number of laps, Piastri would finally get past the Red Bull man on the second corner of Lap 14, as he forced Verstappen to run wide.
Norris would then pass Verstappen three laps later, and while the two would trade second place a few times, it would be Norris who held onto the berth with Verstappen dropping down to fourth courtesy of a poor pit strategy, which gifted George Russell fourth.
Russell was to be followed across the line by the impressive Alexander Albon, who undercut Antonelli on a later pit stop, with the Mercedes rookie forced to settle for sixth place.
While it wasn’t the best showing from Mercedes, they can take some solace from the fact that both Ferraris finished outside the ‘top 6’ with Charles LeClerc finishing seventh and Lewis Hamilton eight.
The final two points scoring spots went to struggling Red Bull man Yuki Tsunoda (ninth) and RB rookie Isack Hadjar (tenth).
It was always going to end like this... 🫠😂
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 11, 2025
All the angles of *that* moment in the Miami LEGO race 👀#F1 #MiamiGP pic.twitter.com/gzKAgSFyKR
Track
Situated in Imola, Italy the Circuit Enzo e Dino Ferrari is a venue steeped in history. The track hosted its first race back in 1980 and ran all the way to 2006 before being dumped from the calendar.
The track was one of the most dangerous on the F1 circuit for many years and sadly claimed the life of Ayrton Senna back in 1994.
A lot of work has gone into taming this snarling beast over the years, however, it’s still a real challenge and can wreak a bit of havoc, as was evident in 2020 with Max Verstappen forced to retire after spinning off the track and new Mercedes boy George Russell involved in a crash.
This race is notorious for incidents and crashes, which continued in 2021 with Fernando Alonso crashing into a wall during the formation lap.
There were several further incidents in that race, causing three drivers to retire due to collisions. 2022 saw five red flags in Q3 qualifying – a record that is yet to be beaten – while the 2023 edition of the race was called off due to flooding. It was smoother sailing last season, with only one retiree.
We had a representative from three different teams on the podium last term, with Max Verstappen claiming the win by less than 3/4s of a second from Lando Norris, while Charles LeClerc finished some eight seconds behind the Red Bull ace in third.
Looking ahead to this weekend’s weather forecast, we’ve got some decent conditions predicted at this point in the week (*this segment of the article was written on Tuesday the 13th of May) mostly clear skies and temperatures in the low 20’s.
There is a slight bit of precipitation being forecast for Sunday, so it will be well worth keeping an eye on the forecast as the week wears on.
Value Bet
Max Verstappen – Podium Finish – 66/100
The value segment is proving difficult this week. I’m going to go slightly left field for this one and instead of backing a driver to get on the podium, I’ll be backing Max Verstappen to miss out. The Dutch ace has the last three races staged at the track but I reckon he may falter here with a number of drivers dicing for those podium spots.
To Win Race Outright
Oscar Piastri – 13/10
He’s claimed three race wins in a row, and I’m expecting the good times to continue for Oscar Piastri out in Italy. He managed a fourth place finish at the venue last season,n but the \McLarne’s have improved greatly since then.
