Rookie team Prema Racing and rookie driver Robert Shwartzman took pole for the 2025 Indianapolis 500 in spectacular fashion.

In what is both his and Prema's first oval event, Shwartzman became the first rookie to win the pole since Teo Fabi in 1983 while no team has taken pole at the first attempt since Teddy Mayer's Mayer Motor Racing did so 1984, ensuring both will go down in history for the 109th running of the race.

Shwartzman went fastest as the fourth driver on track in the Fast Six pole position shootout session, immediately beating Takuma Sato, Scott Dixon and Alex Palou.

Fast Six four-lap averages

1 Robert Shwartzman 232.790mph (2m34.6459s)
2 Takuma Sato 232.478mph (2m34.8534s)
3 Pato O’Ward 232.098mph (2m35.1069s)
4 Scott Dixon 232.052mph (2m35.1377s)
5 Felix Rosenqvist 231.987mph (2m35.1809s)
6 Alex Palou 231.378mph (2m35.5894s)

Then it was a case of whether Arrow McLaren's Pato O'Ward or Meyer Shank's Felix Rosenqvist could unseat him, and neither could.

Prema wasn't even ready to start practice on the first day on Tuesday, and rain plagued the early running, but even with reduced track time the team has arrived at one of the most complicated events in sport and delivered the fastest qualifying run in racing over four-laps and 10 miles.

Sato was the antidote to team-mate Graham Rahal narrowly missing out on Saturday's second day of qualifying by taking an excellent second. It meant both of the series' engine suppliers were in the top two, with Chevrolet holding off Honda to take pole for a second year in a row.

Two-time winner Sato will start ahead of O'Ward, who claimed a place on the front row for the first time for Arrow McLaren.

Dixon took fourth ahead of Rosenqvist, who'd topped the Fast 12 qualifying segment, with their respective Ganassi and Meyer Shank teams working well together in their technical partnership to put half the cars in the Fast Six.

Many expected championship leader Alex Palou to be the driver with the best chance of beating Scott McLaughlin to pole, but come Sunday his car seemed to lose its edge and he could only manage sixth.

"There was not much more," he said on the radio.

The fight for pole was not contested by Penske. Two of its cars weren't allowed to qualify over alleged modifications made in the pitlane, and Scott McLaughlin crashed the other one in practice, denying him the chance to repeat his pole from a year ago.

What happened before that

David Malukas was the fastest driver to miss out on graduating to the Fast Six but will be happy to have qualified so high after missing last year's event, which he spent working for IndyCar's social media team after he'd been dropped by McLaren.

Intra-team battle for last Indy 500 spot: What happened on bump day

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Christian Lundgaard never qualified higher than 28th for the Indy 500 at Rahal Letterman Lanigan but took eighth ahead of Marcus Ericsson, who had to scrape through Bump Day qualifying last year just to make the field.

Rosenqvist had topped the times in that session ahead of O'Ward, Shwartzman, Dixon, Palou and Sato.

Drivers eliminated in Fast 12

7 David Malukas 231.599mph (2m35.4411s)
8 Christian Lundgaard 231.360mph (2m35.6015s)
9 Marcus Ericsson 231.014mph (2m35.8347s)
10 Scott McLaughlin - practice crash
11 Josef Newgarden - failed tech
12 Will Power - failed tech

What happened in last chance qualifying

On bump day, for the second year in a row a Dale Coyne driver was knocked out of the field as rookie Jacob Abel missed out.

He battled his team-mate Rinus VeeKay whose tactics almost cost him a spot in the race having previously never qualified lower than seventh.

How did Red Bull manage to emerge with the quickest Formula 1 car and stun McLaren at Imola?

That's the key question on the post-Emilia Romagna Grand Prix edition of The Race F1 Podcast, as Edd Straw is joined by Mark Hughes and Jon Noble to discuss Max Verstappen's second win of the 2025 season - one taken in very different fashion to his previous triumph at Suzuka.

There's also chat about how Ferrari saved face at one of its home races after a dismal qualifying, plus there are plenty of questions from The Race Members' Club about everything from Yuki Tsunoda's response to his big qualifying crash, to why there was one safety car and one VSC for what looked like very similar retirements.

Join The Race Members' Club for your chance to have your questions answered on our F1 podcast, and get plenty of exclusive bonus and ad-free content too

For a second year in a row a Dale Coyne Racing rookie was bumped out of the Indianapolis 500 field as Jacob Abel lost a spectacular and enthralling battle with team-mate Rinus VeeKay to make the race on Bump Day.

With Marco Andretti and Marcus Armstrong seemingly clear with their first runs of last chance qualifying, as was the case in 2023 when two Rahal Letterman Lanigan drivers were trying to knock each other out so this time it was last year's victim Coyne with two cars fighting for the last spot in the race.

VeeKay, who is driving for Coyne at the Indy 500 for the first time and has three front-row starts from five attempts (and a worst previous start of seventh), scraped through initially in 33rd with his rookie team-mate Abel on the outside looking in.

"We lost like so much speed from Friday night to Saturday morning," said Abel prior to qualifying. "We have way less downforce now than we were then and even Saturday morning we were still pretty quick.

"Super, super strange, just mysterious loss of speed."

Abel had to wait for his car to cool, and even went out and did one lap at slow speed to try to get air through the car to cool it further before going straight back out for a second run.

Typically because of the power output at Indianapolis you can't do back-to-back runs without cooling the engine; if you do it can lack significant performance.

Abel looked set to wait to do his run until the last moment to have the chance to make the field and stop VeeKay from getting a shot at another run.

Not wanting to allow that, VeeKay withdrew his time - a massive risk if he went slower or made a mistake - to beat Abel out onto the track for one final run.

But VeeKay's run was massively slower, from a 227.740mph average to a 226.913mph or 0.5761s, opening the door for Abel. His first run had been faster than VeeKay's second, too, but that one was forfeited as Abel was out of the top 33 at that stage.

"Have you ever played chess with yourself?" smiled Dale Coyne, explaining the move to run VeeKay again, pointing to each team knowing the other's strategies and wanting them both to get a fair chance.

With just over a minute to go Abel began his run, but his run was also slower, massively bailing out VeeKay.

The run was a 226.394mph average, condemning a car with a livery dedicated to Danny Sullivan's miraculous 1985 spin-and-win victory over Mario Andretti. There would be no miracle for Abel.

"I feel relief but not real happiness," said a sombre VeeKay, who later embraced Abel with a hug. "I feel bad for him."

Last year it was Nolan Siegel - who went on to land a plum seat at McLaren later in the season - who was bumped for Coyne.

Andretti’s first run being the quickest meant three cars would have to improve within the final 40 or so minutes, which was almost impossible.

“I think tomorrow is ours to lose,” he had said on Saturday evening, and so it proved as the 2020 polesitter will start 31st in his bid to take a first win.

The day before, Andretti had been 0.0028s short over four laps and 10 miles of avoiding Last Chance Qualifying and making the field automatically

Marcus Armstrong had to watch his team-mate Felix Rosenqvist fight for pole while he took 32nd, but that was mostly down to Armstrong's Saturday morning practice crash - one that destroyed his primary car.

His team hastily threw together his Detroit street course car as a back-up machine, which has at least allowed him to qualify.

It says a lot about Coyne's struggles that two practice cars, for Armstrong and Saturday qualifier Colton Herta, made it through to the event well ahead of its entries.

The Fast Six fight for pole follows the last chance qualifying session.

Confirmed Indy 500 starting positions so far

7 David Malukas
8 Christian Lundgaard
9 Marcus Ericsson
10 Scott McLaughlin
11 Josef Newgarden
12 Will Power
13 Conor Daly
14 Alexander Rossi
15 Kyffin Simpson
16 Ed Carpenter
17 Santino Ferrucci
18 Devlin DeFrancesco
19 Sting Ray Robb
20 Christian Rasmussen
21 Kyle Larson
22 Louis Foster
23 Callum Ilott
24 Helio Castroneves
25 Kyle Kirkwood
26 Nolan Siegel
27 Ryan Hunter-Reay
28 Jack Harvey
29 Colton Herta
30 Graham Rahal
31 Marco Andretti
32 Marcus Armstrong
33 Rinus VeeKay

Bumped out of the event: Jacob Abel

Team Penske has explained why two of its cars weren't allowed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 on a day when its third car had already crashed in practice and been ruled out.

Penske came into qualifying as the favourite, particularly with last year's pole winner Scott McLaughlin, whose car had looked the best of the team's three in qualifying trim.

But McLaughlin crashed heavily at Turn 2, leaving the #2 of Josef Newgarden and the #12 of Will Power to attempt to advance from the Fast 12 segment to the Fast Six pole position shootout.

However, both cars were pulled out of line after they were seen being worked on.

Only wing angle changes and tyre pressure adjustments are allowed in the line on pitlane before qualifying, but pictures showed the rear wing being taken off Newgarden's car and tools including what appeared to be an angle grinder being applied to Power's.

The #12 car had reportedly cleared inspection, whereas IndyCar had pointed out a part of the attenuator - the upright assembly which holds up the rear wing - had been sealed and blended where there is a seam. Once it knew the officials didn't like the #2 car, Penske elected to pull the cars out of line.

Penske began to work on the cars as it believed they might be given permission to, but that wasn't the case.

"So essentially the #12 car actually passed inspection and as the #2 car went through inspection it was pointed out that basically the officials didn't like what you saw in television there," Team Penske's president of the IndyCar team, Tim Cindric, told Fox.

"There was a blending there on the attenuator and we decided, 'Look, the #12 car, let's go look at that' and the #12 car was the same way.

"So there was really no reason to run the #12 car knowing that it was like the #2 car, and they didn't like the #2 car.

"I in fact went back and looked at the #3 car from this morning and it didn't have that, so there's a bit of a randomness internally there that we need to sort out but it's a shame we didn't give our guys a chance to go for it."

Expanding on his answer, Cindric added "when we asked if we could modify that or change that before we ran, it was understood at least initially that we might be able to do that", but admitted if he was one of Penske's competitors "I'd have the same argument that you're only allowed to change certain things once you pass inspection, wing angles, tyre pressures and so forth".

"At the end of the day we didn't do it right," he said.

The part or area of the car in question here can be seen in the tweet above, where a gap is visible between the orange bodywork and the carbonfibre. There is no sealant here and this is not a Penske car.

Asked for further explanation, Cindric said: "There's a seam, there's just a seam on the attenuator, so we'd fill that seam on evidently some of our attenuators and others we hadn't, and honestly I think it's an arbitrary thing.

"When I looked at #3 car that crashed and it wasn't like those. So once I knew that the #2 car and the #12 car were the same in qualifying line there was no use to put our cars at risk."

IndyCar technical director Kevin Blanch gave a statement but was not asked any follow-up questions.

He merely stated: "There was a body fit violation on that rear attenuator so as quick as this process happens, we ran them through tech, we got everybody in line and then right near the end or prior to qualifying they decided that they would just pull out of line."

There has been some debate about whether a competitor pointed out the sealed area and/or Penske working on its cars in the line, but this has not yet been addressed by Penske or IndyCar.

Was this another of those Red Bull Formula 1 wins whipped away from under McLaren's nose by a virtuoso Max Verstappen? Or has there genuinely been a competitive breakthrough with the tricky RB21?

That's a simple question but the answer contains some complexity.

Imola aero map and tyre deg

Red Bull was genuinely slightly faster here than McLaren on race pace. Red Bull's Christian Horner and McLaren's Andrea Stella agreed on that.

Horner: "We had the pace for anything they could throw at us."

Stella: "If you look at the aero maps of Miami and here, they are in a completely different place. We're good at Bahrain, China, Miami. But in the high-speed part of the aero map we have no particular advantage over them. Further, Red Bull looks like they have improved their car..."

That high-speed downforce gives a compounding advantage. In limiting the sliding, the tyre's surface temperature is better controlled. Hence the tiny difference between the two cars in qualifying and the much more significant Red Bull advantage in the race.

Imola winners and losers

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When a track's layout is all about traction zones ands lower corners, the defining tyre temperature mechanism is totally different. Then it's about controlling the rear tyre's bulk temperature - the inner core of the tyre. In that demand the McLaren is supreme and were we to go back to Miami there's little doubt it would be just as dominant as two weeks ago.

But Imola isn't about that. Imola with a very soft range of compounds - one step softer than last year, two steps softer than two years ago - was especially not about that. It was about keeping the surface temperatures nicely cool.

Once Oscar Piastri had got himself too preoccupied with preventing George Russell surging down his inside into the Tamburello chicane, thereby leaving a gap on the outside which Verstappen instantly filled with total commitment, the race was lost to McLaren. Its only chance of winning would have been on track position and defending against the faster car - the way Verstappen did in Suzuka.

"After Turn 1 we tried to chase him but effectively we didn't have enough race pace to be able to beat Max taking the lead after lap one," explained Stella.

"We attempted to unlock various scenarios to try and beat him but at no stage did we have enough race pace...here to overtake you need seven-eight tenths of a second. So I think it's what it is; the main factor remains the swap of position and the outcome of lap one."

That's the first time that's happened this year. Red Bull won Suzuka on track position. It won Imola on performance. Imola is configured favourably for the Red Bull, but so was Suzuka and Jeddah. Here it had something more - and it came from the upgrade.

Red Bull's upgrade

We know the Red Bull is fast through fast corners, faster than the McLaren, and takes care of the tyre surfaces on such tracks as this. It's also got a better DRS performance. In addition to that, Red Bull brought a further upgrade - sidepod/engine cover with a change of inlet shape and minor reshaping of the rear brake ducts - which gave a greater range of set-up options.

"Yes, the changes were about balance rather than load," confirmed Horner.

Technical chief Pierre Wache explained further: "The new parts gave a bigger option for improving the set-up and Max was able to use the car more because of it."

That still entailed the usual Red Bull rethink on set-up from Friday to Saturday. During the Friday long runs the car was around 0.7s adrift of McLaren. It was transformed into FP3 on Saturday morning, with Verstappen more positive about the car than he has been all season.

"The new package gives more opportunity to improve the set-up," said Wache. "More for the race than quali, it's so difficult with set-ups of these cars: 1mm here, 2mm there and you get the tyres working or not, with no suspension effectively. And the engine mode has a big effect."

The strategy

The tyre behaviour and the Red Bull's small performance edge had a strategy implication which only added to Red Bull's advantage.

As Piastri in the Red Bull's dirty air overused his tyres trying to keep up, it tipped him towards a two-stop strategy very early. He was in to swap his mediums with the exhausted front-right for a set of hards after just 13 laps. Which brought horrendous traffic delay implications.

Lando Norris, who'd under-qualified and spent the first 10 laps trying to find his way past Russell, inherited second as Piastri pitted but was by that point around 10s adrift of the flying Verstappen.

Verstappen stayed out uninterrupted in clear air until lap 29 when a virtual safety car for Esteban Ocon's stationary Haas gave him a cheap stop, exaggerating his advantage over the McLarens.

Unlike Piastri, Norris was finding his tyres were fine. But every time he attempted to close that gap, Verstappen was comfortably able to respond. Norris pitted on lap 28, easily late enough to remain on a one-stop, just like Verstappen, but a lap too early to benefit from the VSC.

Piastri was briefly the lead McLaren again but, wedded now to the two-stop, needed to come in for his second set of hards on lap 30 and so fell back behind not only Norris but also the well-driven Williams of Alex Albon. Although Piastri succeeded in catching and passing Albon, he was 14s behind Norris by the time he did so and Lando in turn trailed Verstappen by 18s after 43 laps, an average Verstappen advantage of over 0.4s per lap as they each just drove to the surface temperatures of their right-front tyres.

Should latest defeat to Verstappen scare McLaren? Our verdict

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That’s how it was all going to be. Albon in fourth was being caught by the Ferrari pair (the hard tyre-starting Lewis Hamilton ahead of the earlier-stopping early-stopping, traffic-delayed Charles Leclerc) who had around 20 laps to find a way by.

Behind them were Isack Hadjar's Racing Bull and Kimi Antonelli having a very low-key weekend in his Mercedes. It went even lower-key on lap 45 as the throttle stopped working.

This brought out a very long safety car - and thereby created a bit of a strategic reset as some dived into the pits for fresh hard tyres just because they could (Verstappen, Norris, Albon, Hamilton) and others stayed out because they had no more suitable tyres left (Piastri, the one-stopping Leclerc, Russell). Russell - who’d overworked his mediums in the first stint, switched to a two-stop and lost a load of time in traffic - gained a place as his team mate pulled off.

Norris's unplanned second stop had put him back behind Piastri and although he suggested over the radio it might be a good idea for McLaren to move the older-tyred Piastri aside, he received no joy. He'd have to find his own way by.

That left Verstappen on the restart on his fresh tyres able to scorch away from Piastri, whose tyres were 16 laps older. Norris had to get pretty committed around the outside of Tamburello to retake second.

Similarly Albon’s stop had put him behind the non-stopping Leclerc but on tyres 36 laps newer he was all over him and went for the same Tamburello move, only for Leclerc - his front axle about level - to push the Williams out over the gravel trap.

This allowed Hamilton to pass the Williams, putting him in position to DRS his way past the ancient-tyred Leclerc a lap later, with Charles then being instructed to surrender a further place to Albon to safeguard against a penalty. Which didn't please him much.

Race winner for a second time this year, Verstappen gave his summary. "We still have work to do, but I do think it's been a very positive weekend for us.

"Of course, we brought upgrades. I think they worked. Friday was very difficult still, but then I think we found a better set-up for Saturday.

"And I just hope that we can use that a bit more often because it definitely brought the car in a better window."

Esteban Ocon and Kimi Antonelli both stopped in roughly the same place in Formula 1’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - so why was one a virtual safety car and the other a full safety car?

Ocon was told to bring his Haas to a halt on the exit of Acque Minerali 29 laps into the 63-lap contest, with the Frenchman pulling up onto the grass on the left-hand side.

That prompted race control to deploy a virtual safety car during a crucial phase of the race, with half the field still yet to pit.

Ocon’s Haas was removed via the nearest gap in the barrier, which was behind where he parked, downhill, which helped the marshals make a fairly brisk recovery.

Then on lap 46, Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes ground to a halt with a suspected throttle control issue in a very similar place.

His slowing Mercedes actually passed the Ocon-occupied marshal post, and he parked just further up from where Ocon stopped.

As the marshal post behind him was already taken, it meant the marshals had to push his car uphill towards the next vacant marshal gap.

While the marshals were simply able to push Ocon’s stricken Haas downhill to safety, a recovery vehicle was needed to move Antonelli’s Mercedes, given it was uphill and a further distance to the next available post than where Ocon’s car had been pushed to.

It wasn’t anticipated that this space would be needed either, and so there was a delay as it was cleared of signage.

What Piastri should've done against Verstappen's 'win or bin' move

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Antonelli’s car wasn’t touched for almost five minutes after he climbed out, as the recovery marshal post was readied and the recovery vehicle made its way over.

In contrast, when Ocon jumped out of his Haas, the marshals were already there, ready to push his car down the hill to safety under the VSC.

The Race understands the presence of the recovery vehicle and the trickier extraction of his car warranted a full safety car, versus the brief Ocon recovery that could be covered under a VSC.

Some Formula 1 drivers' and teams' races were turned on their heads by strategy calls at Imola.

Others' fates looked to have been determined long before that.

Here's our pick of winners and losers from the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix:

Loser: Oscar Piastri

Piastri was unlucky to suffer a six-point swing against Lando Norris, still his main title rival, as a consequence of the timing of the two race interruptions.

But the defeat against Verstappen was by and large all his own doing. As George Russell, irritated on the team radio immediately after the fact, said of Piastri's approach to Turn 1: "If you leave the door open, you know Max is going to take it. The door was open. And he took it. So that was a bit frustrating."

Russell felt Piastri could've ensured he led out of Turn 1, with Russell second, but admitted it wasn't "straightforward".

But straightforward or not a fourth successive win would've gone a long way today - and, though Piastri was keen post-race to emphasise the McLaren maybe wasn't the quickest car out there, that doesn't mean it couldn't have beaten the RB21 with clean air. - Valentin Khorounzhiy

Winner: Max Verstappen

On an emotional level, this was the lesser of Verstappen's two victories so far this season.

But this one might just take top billing in the satisfaction stakes considering just how unexpected it was - and how convincing the edge ended up being.

From the stunning "well, I'm just going to try to send it around the outside" move (Verstappen's words) to pinch the lead, to the way he legitimately dropped the pursuing McLarens thereafter, this was the sort of complete control we've not really seen from Verstappen and Red Bull since the start of 2024.

That's got to be seen as a bit of a warning to McLaren. - Jack Cozens

Winner: Lando Norris

Norris conceded there was "clearly just not the pace to win today", but will no doubt take some satisfaction from beating his team-mate in a straight shootout.

Well, straight-ish, anyway, as there was a huge tyre offset between Norris and Piastri. But Norris still had to get his elbows out and prise second from the other McLaren on track, fair and square.

And the nature of the pass was as significant as the statement it sent. After a number of weekends where the (small) things Norris has done wrong have been scrutinised, here it's what he did right that's in the spotlight. That was an important marker to lay down against his championship-leading team-mate. - JC

Loser: McLaren

This wasn't another lost win like Suzuka where imperfections cost McLaren. This was more straightforward: once Verstappen had bossed the chicane at the start, the Red Bull was just plain faster.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted to being "a little surprised" by just how fast the RB21 was, congratulating Verstappen and Red Bull for the turn of pace they showed.

But there's no doubt that "surprise" will have been startling. If evidence of that was needed, Norris offered it on the team radio after the race.

"Let's keep pushing, guys," he said. "I know it's been a lovely start [to the season], but [we] weren't quick enough to win it today." - JC

Loser: Charles Leclerc

Leclerc sounds almost resigned to his fate now. What should have been a title challenge has quickly turned into another salvage job for Ferrari - and a difficult one too.

He did his best to recover from a disastrous qualifying session, but got screwed by the way the two safety car periods intersected with his two-stop tyre strategy.

Leclerc did his best to defend position at the end but was effectively a sitting duck on those worn hard tyres against Albon's Williams.

Sixth is a respectable result considering how bad Ferrari's weekend was going before the race started, but Leclerc stood on the podium here last year and now sits 85 points adrift of championship leader Piastri with little sign of a big improvement to come. - Ben Anderson

Winner: Lewis Hamilton

Where Leclerc lost out, Hamilton gained by starting on the alternative (hard) tyre and then taking the benefit of cheap pitstops during the safety car periods.

Hamilton's mood is always prone to swings based on how well the immediate session has panned out, so he was naturally delighted to put on a decent show and achieve a strong result in front of a local crowd that clearly energised him.

Fourth is probably the best realistic finish he and Ferrari could have got from this race anyway, and Hamilton was the one who achieved that result, so it's difficult to see what more he could have done in this race - even if he was a bit lucky in the process. - BA

Loser: Mercedes

"The fact is, every team has a disastrous race weekend at some point. This is our first one of the season."

George Russell's concern over Mercedes' performance at Imola was hardly eased by a seventh-place finish - which did snap his streak of finishing in the top five in every race prior in 2025.

But it wasn't circumstantial. The Mercedes looked a seventh-place car, if that, as evidenced by Russell's first stint being so bad he seemingly scared a bunch of rival teams into an early stop - and as also evidenced by Russell just narrowly hanging on to seventh over Carlos Sainz, who was on the same compound and age of tyre.

Kimi Antonelli's race pace, after an early opportunistic overtake on Hamilton that should've counted for more, was even more non-existent even before his W16 broke down (you could potentially use the adjective 'mercifully' there).

"We had absolutely zero pace, clearly a trend when it's hot - the track was really hot. When it's hot, we're nowhere, when it's cold, we're quick," Russell summed up. - VK

Winner: Williams

The no-longer-developed Williams FW47 continues to rake in the points relative to its midfield rivals - the benefit of a line-up made up of two high-level experienced operators, but also the benefit of what is clearly a very handy design.

There was more on the table with slightly better VSC/SC luck, either for Alex Albon or for Sainz - deeply and loudly frustrated with the early stop and the final outcome for his race - though probably not for both.

In any case, 14 points when every team behind it combined scored two is a proper yield - and reflective of a squad that's increasingly making it a habit of bothering the 'stragglers' from that Mercedes/Red Bull/Ferrari group rather than needing to worry itself about its actual nominal rivals. - VK

Loser: Aston Martin

A disheartened Fernando Alonso reckoned after the race that, without the VSC, Aston was one for a sixth-and-seventh finish and that "in 100 scenarios of the race, 99 were OK for us to score strong points for the team".

This is probably a charitable reading of the race - team-mate Lance Stroll felt he would've finished "ninth or something" without the VSC, as that early stop, which Aston Martin committed to with both cars, seemed to be a less-than-optimal strategy even without interruptions.

But it was still going to score something - and instead had its best-perfomance weekend of the year yield no points.

The performance of the upgraded AMR25 should be a boon, but there's no guarantee it'll be this good at all the upcoming tracks. - VK

Winner: Isack Hadjar

Behind runaway winner Verstappen, who was the next-best finisher among the Red Bull pool of drivers?

For the fourth time in seven races it was F1 rookie Hadjar.

OK, Yuki Tsunoda's "stupid" Q1 crash and Liam Lawson getting done by the timing of Franco Colapinto's Q1 crash played a role - but it's the consistency of Hadjar's execution in qualifying and the races, despite his relative lack of experience, that continues to impress.

His start wasn't totally clean, but it's hard to fault much else. He was always in the mix for points and hanging on well against faster cars. - BA

Loser: Haas

There was a brief moment where it looked as though something might happen for Haas at Imola.

Admittedly, the advantageous position Ollie Bearman found himself in was a result of his team-mate Esteban Ocon's virtual safety car-inducing stoppage, the result of an "air consumption issue". But that served to elevate Bearman to a position that he felt his pace at Imola merited.

It was short-lived. A loose wheel at his VSC pitstop required him to stop again and, all of a sudden, both Haas cars were at the bottom of the timing tower.

Team principal Ayao Komatsu summed it up as succinctly as we could've wished for. "The positive is that the car had pace to score points," he said. "It's another missed opportunity though." - JC

Loser: Pierre Gasly

Though clearly Alpine's benchmark this season, Pierre Gasly has now converted four top-10 starts into just one top-10 finish, which is far from ideal for himself and the team.

His race was doomed by the VSC coming out after he had committed to the two-stop, but it had been compromised before that with his off while fighting against Leclerc.

Gasly admitted he is "not happy with how I handled that" - and that he "probably" damaged the floor with his trip through the gravel in addition to the time loss.

Monaco is a must-use opportunity for him and Alpine to finally make use of some of these good qualifying results. - VK

Widely-backed Indy 500 pole favourite Scott McLaughlin has crashed in practice, and is reportedly out of qualifying for the famous event.

McLaughlin is due to take part in top 12 qualifying, the fastest six drivers in which will go through to fight for pole, which McLaughlin won in last year’s Indy 500.

Scott McLaughlin hits the wall hard in #Indy500 practice. pic.twitter.com/N5oPmCuOVI

— INDYCAR on FOX (@IndyCarOnFOX) May 18, 2025

In Saturday qualifying he was second and reckoned a bad gearshift cost him - so he was expected by many to have a strong chance of securing a repeat pole.

But in morning practice he lost the rear coming off Turn 2 and smashed the wall, taking both left-side wheels off.

He did get out of the car unassisted, before crouching down on the track surface in dismay. The track itself was left gouged where the car scraped on the ground - which will require repairs that are likely to considerably delay the two-hour practice, which had only just started.

"We had a great car and I just destroyed it," McLaughlin told Fox.

"It's hard to take, especially now, you kind of wish it was for something, but it was for nothing, in practice.

"But ultimately those are the decisions you make at that speed and I chose to keep the run going. So yeah, it's on me."

McLaughin has been seen to in the circuit medical centre, and subsequently released.

Fox has reported that McLaughlin will not run again today, later confirmed by McLaughlin via X. The team does have a superspeedway car - something most teams don't benefit from - but their reporting indicated Penske did not think it was worth rushing the preparation of the car to go into qualifying ill-prepared and without a chance at pole.

Often teams elect to skip this practice session because of the risk of crashing or damage so soon before qualifying.

Even this year, qualifying star Robert Shwartzman and Prema - sixth yesterday - have decided to avoid the session.

But practice time has been vital this year because changing wind direction and tricky conditions have made gaining experience to anticipate the conditions you might get in qualifying imperative.

Alex Palou was fastest yesterday for Chip Ganassi. McLaughlin’s team-mates Josef Newgarden and Will Power both also made the Fast 12.

A second look from the in-car camera of @smclaughlin93 😧 pic.twitter.com/54MdvhW69N

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) May 18, 2025

McLaughlin’s chances of winning the race itself next week have also taken a hit.

Each car has special parts that have been handpicked by the team and that car has been worked on for a year to perfect it for this race. A backup car naturally won't have been prioritised and refined to such an extent, even if, as mentioned above, Penske is one of the few teams to have a superspeedway-focused back-up.

There’s two practices, on Monday and Friday, for McLaughlin to prepare for the race.

Top 12 from Saturday

1 Alex Palou 233.043mph (2m34.4781s)
2 Scott McLaughlin 233.013mph (2m34.4979s)
3 Josef Newgarden 233.004mph (2m34.5036s) run about 1900
4 Pato O’Ward 232.820mph (2m34.6257s)
5 Scott Dixon 232.659mph (2m34.7327s)
6 Robert Shwartzman 232.584mph (2m34.7828s)
7 David Malukas 232.546mph (2m34.8080s)
8 Felix Rosenqvist 232.449mph (2m34.8726s)
9 Takuma Sato 232.415mph (2m34.8591s)
10 Will Power 232.144mph (2m35.0760s)
11 Marcus Ericsson 232.132mph (2m35.0843s)
12 Christian Lundgaard 231.809mph (2m35.3004s)

Red Bull and Max Vestappen again turned around a difficult weekend to see off both McLarens in the only session that really counted, putting the Dutchman back into striking range in the 2025 drivers' title fight.

But is McLaren's Imola defeat - on the heels of three successive Oscar Piastri wins - another blip like Suzuka was, or should it be concerned that it hasn't yet managed to ensure the title battle is a Piastri-and-Norris-only affair?

Perfection required when it's this close

Ben Anderson

This race typified the incredibly tight margins that can make the difference between victory and defeat in this 2025 season so far.

Imola is a fast circuit, clearly better suited to the Red Bull than some other places F1 has visited so far, and overtaking is always difficult, so it should have been all about who claimed pole. Piastri did that job (just), but he didn’t get the second phase of his start right and then allowed himself to be mugged by an audacious Verstappen pass at the first chicane.

That effectively decided the race, almost the reverse of Jeddah - because Verstappen could then use the clean air to help look after his tyres and any end-of-stint edge McLaren might have theoretically enjoyed didn’t ever have a chance to play a role here because the safety cars anyway effectively protected the leading car strategically.

That leading car was Verstappen’s, so he duly won the race - but it could so easily have been Piastri’s, if he’d got the first corner right.

Even on the correct strategy I don’t see how either McLaren finds a way past Verstappen’s Red Bull when the top cars were so evenly matched around this circuit and those safety cars helped neutralise the tyre degradation effect in the lead battle.

Perfection was needed. Verstappen was perfect in this race. Piastri and McLaren weren't.

This means more than Japan

Scott Mitchell-Malm

This was a much more significant win for Verstappen than his last McLaren-defying performance in Japan, because it wasn't just about stealing then protecting track position. As Lando Norris put it: "I don't think we had an answer to them, even in the final stint."

It was the first time this season that Verstappen and Red Bull looked like more than just a match for McLaren in a straight fight. And there will be all sorts of reasons why this was possible after the utter thrashing McLaren dished out at the last race in Miami, but all Verstappen will care about is that it shows his car can be just as good (maybe quicker?) when everything comes together.

What Piastri should have done against Verstappen's move

Read more

For all the positives this season - stealing poles, the Suzuka win, scoring podiums - there's been a massive undercurrent of 'Verstappen's sniping for too much to keep this up all season'. Even his best days needed quite a bit of help. Whereas at Imola, the McLaren slip-ups were useful but not defining: Norris reckons he wouldn't have beaten Verstappen from pole today; Piastri couldn't (his defence was surprisingly non-existent and disappointing); and McLaren didn't run the best race possible but that just contributed to bigger deficits rather than actually being behind.

Of course the race could have played out very differently had Verstappen's "win it or bin it" approach to the first corner (Christian Horner's words) not paid off and Piastri held the lead. But it's not like Verstappen fought a rearguard action at any point after that. Once he was in front, all he did was take more and more control of the grand prix.

It's been a while since we saw Red Bull give him a car capable of doing that so comfortably.

Every rival team should fear a driver like this

Josh Suttill

As long as Verstappen has a car capable of picking up race wins on some weekends, then McLaren can never relax. As, let's be honest, in a straight fight Verstappen has the beating of both its drivers, and that's no slight on either McLaren driver.

Verstappen storming around the outside of Piastri, turning a battle for second with George Russell into a battle for the win with one bit of late braking, is yet another example that Verstappen is fully into his late-1990s Michael Schumacher era.

I say that because, like Schumacher (pictured above en route to victory in Canada in 1997) was for much of the 90s and early 2000s, Verstappen is so clearly the class of the current F1 field - even one that features the most successful driver of all time and huge talents like Piastri, Norris, Russell and Charles Leclerc.

Piastri, who held his own well against Verstappen in Miami and whose racecraft has built up a big bank of credit, was made to look like a rookie by Verstappen at Imola.

McLaren isn't capitalising enough

Valentin Khorounzhiy

Unless the Barcelona flexi-wing adjustment is at true game changer, you'd expect the MCL39 to still be the car to have over the RB21 at the vast majority of the tracks this year. And it is clear Red Bull is performing a true high-wire act here - in both of its wins, Suzuka and here, it righted the ship in-weekend after fairly turgid Fridays.

But the balance of power between F1 cars doesn't remain static, even in a season like this when the spectre of 2026 weighs so heavily. And the feeling was there in Suzuka, and it is equally acute here, that McLaren is letting Verstappen score too much and stay too close given the respective cars' current potential.

Save for Jeddah (where Verstappen really shouldn't have been allowed by McLaren to steal pole anyway), the McLaren pair are losing the 50/50s to Verstappen, and the team - which admittedly has already effectively defended the constructors' title - is at least somewhat limited strategically by the fact it cannot really get away with doing anything that will clearly prioritise one driver's points haul over another.

And that's one problem Red Bull extremely doesn't have and will not have any time soon.

If McLaren still has the buffer it has generally had so far, it'll shake out OK for the team come Abu Dhabi. But if the RB21 becomes just a little bit more of an all-rounder - and it already looked potent in race trim here - then it's really, truly game on for a three-way title fight in which McLaren will not have the best driver.

That won't be a fun position to be in.

Meek surrender but a one-off for now

Gary Anderson

First lap, first corner set the scene - it’s the first time this year I have seen Piastri be so timid. With Verstappen, if you give him an opening he is like a rat up a drain pipe.

That together with pitting far too early for the hard tyres, in a car that history has shown looks after its tyres better than any other, seemed like a strange decision to me - why would you do that?

But Lady Luck did also intervene, and though it was Verstappen's day, on the team side we shouldn't forget that Red Bull came away from Imola with 26 points, McLaren with 33 points.

I don't think McLaren has to worry just yet. But the motivation at Red Bull will be high, so if this sort of thing happens again in Monaco or Barcelona, then the tide could really turn.

Max Verstappen's opportunistic around-the-outside overtake that surprised polesitter Oscar Piastri was the decisive moment in Formula 1's Imola race.

And while Red Bull team boss Christian Horner described it as a "win it or bin it" move, Verstappen said he did not think it was on at first.

The world champion was at risk of falling to third behind Mercedes driver George Russell at the first corner, but Russell was stuck behind Piastri's McLaren on the inside line, giving Verstappen the freedom to brake later on the outside.

Fending off Russell looked straightforward in the circumstances but what was unexpected - especially to the erstwhile race leader - was Verstappen flying around the outside of both of them then claiming the inside for the second part of the Tamburello chicane.

"I was quite far back at the time before braking, I was basically in P3," said Verstappen.

"I was on the normal braking line but I still had to come from far.

Imola winners and losers

Read more

"As soon as I braked late and came off the brakes I thought there might be a move on, so I carried the speed in and luckily it was sticking.

"It’s not an easy move to make."

Verstappen was praised by team boss Horner for being "incredibly decisive" and "just so good in those situations".

"His start, and that first corner was kind of win it or bin it, the commitment that he had," said Horner.

"Oscar was fair and gave him space. He's coming from a way back, and George is up the inside, but he just commits to the corner, and was given enough space by Oscar.

"And that was the last they saw of him."

During the race, Russell was surprised and annoyed by Piastri braking so early, and vented his frustration over the radio. Afterwards he said Piastri had left the door open for Verstappen and "you know Max is going to take it".

"That was a bit frustrating," said Russell.

"I was obviously boxed in, I made a really strong start, but the track's just too narrow for these big F1 cars these days, there's nothing we can do.

"He [Piastri] could've left the door open to me and braked very late himself and he'd have been leading, I'd have been second.

"But [it was] not straightforward in that position."

Verstappen's move was clearly one that Piastri did not see coming. The usually robust championship leader, who had forced his way by Verstappen at the first corner in Saudi Arabia then jumped Kimi Antonelli in the sprint race in Miami in similar fashion, covered the inside line into the first corner.

Piastri admitted "I thought I had it under control" and was surprised by "a good move from Max". He said he would have to "learn for next time, clearly" and when asked if he would do something different in hindsight, replied simply: "I definitely would have done something different. I'd have braked 10 metres later probably."

Despite that disappointment, Piastri - who finished third, behind team-mate Lando Norris - acknowledged that his race fell apart in different ways thereafter.

McLaren's decision to pit him very early backfired, costing him time to Verstappen, who was also able to extend his first stint with ease then benefit from a virtual safety car to make a cheap pitstop.

At one point Verstappen' was almost 20 seconds clear of the chasing McLarens and even a late restart from a full safety car did not give him any concern, such was his pace.

"I wasn't overly concerned not to be in the lead, then the pace wasn't as strong as expected," said Piastri. "That compounded the first corner."

Max Verstappen pulled off a stunning Turn 1 move to take the lead and eventually win the 2025 Formula 1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix - as two interruptions punctuated the race at Imola.

After the lights went out, under pressure from George Russell, poleman Oscar Piastri allowed Verstappen to outbrake him and pass him around the outside of Turn 2 to take the lead by the exit of Tamburello.

Perhaps it was a tame concession of the lead from Piastri - but Verstappen’s move was nothing short of brilliant. This was a brave, clean move through a narrow, unforgiving corner - something seldom-seen in this era of F1.

It was just one of a trio of defining moments at what could be Imola’s final grand prix for the foreseeable future.

VSC plays into Verstappen's hands

Were it not for the VSC and safety car interventions, this race would have been defined by one-stop/two-stop dilemma.

Charles Leclerc was one of the first to swap his C5s for C4s, having done so on lap 10. That stop allowed him to undercut the likes of Russell and Carlos Sainz, the former having just lost a place to Norris before deciding to pit early.

After losing the lead on lap one, Piastri was under two seconds behind Verstappen but decided to try the undercut, swapping his C5s for C4s on lap 14 - and hindered by a slow front-right tyre change.

Verstappen didn’t bite, and Lando Norris also stayed out. Alex Albon, Isack Hadjar, Kimi Antonelli, and Lewis Hamilton would also follow suit and attempt a one-stop race.

Unable to eat into Verstappen’s 9.5s lead, Norris pitted from mediums to hards on lap 29 - just before Haas’s Esteban Ocon stopped on track to bring out the virtual safety car.

Verstappen took that chance for a first pitstop along with Albon, Hadjar, Antonelli and Hamilton, while numerous others came in for their second stops.

Leclerc, who had taken his first stop early, cursed the emergence of the VSC that had given the one-stoppers a massive advantage. Neither Aston Martin would take the chance to pit, with Fernando Alonso soon cursing his luck as he tumbled out of the top 10.

“I’m the unluckiest driver in the f***** world,” lamented Alonso as his two-stop strategy crumbled.

For Hamilton, the VSC stop proved a catalyst for his temperamental Ferrari. The seven-time champion found stellar pace on medium tyres and began to climb through the top 10, with the highlight being a lap 34 pass on Antonelli through Tamburello.

Much of the above would prove academic when Antonelli’s Mercedes ground to a halt on lap 46.

Antonelli stoppage sparks late drama

Verstappen seemed destined to win with a huge margin - but Antonelli’s throttle control issue brought out the safety car.

Verstappen, Norris, Albon, Hamilton and Hadjar pitted for newer C4s while the rest stayed out on worn C4s and C5s.

As the safety car circled the circuit, Norris lobbied McLaren to look at Piastri’s worn hard tyres as he made the case for a position swap on the restart.

That restart came on lap 54 of 63, and Verstappen led away. Piastri would lead Norris until lap 58, when the Briton passed the Australian through Tamburello - with what looked like a small bump of wheels on the way through - for second place.

Verstappen would go on to beat Norris by just under seven seconds while Piastri was another six seconds off in third place by the chequered flag.

Hamilton took fourth place from 12th on the grid after late drama between team-mate Leclerc and Williams driver Albon, who went through the gravel in an attempt to take P4 off Leclerc on lap 60 - letting Hamilton through.

Leclerc was then told to give fifth place to Albon and avoid a potential penalty. We were treated to one more rant over the Ferrari radio as Leclerc questioned: “That’s how racing is now?!”.

Russell complained of rear-end instability after his first pitstop and ended up hanging on to seventh ahead of Williams’s Sainz.

Isack Hadjar drove another solid race for Racing Bulls, mirroring Verstappen’s strategy, and finishing ninth.

The last point went to Yuki Tsunoda, who, on his way from the pitlane to 10th, briefly banged wheels with Sainz and attempted to hold up Piastri.

The upgraded Aston Martins missed out on points with Alonso 11th and Lance Stroll 15th, neither driver in sync with the safety car periods.

Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg finished 12th - pitting just once during the midrace VSC - to finish ahead of Alpine's Pierre Gasly and Racing Bull's Liam Lawson.

That left rookies Franco Colapinto, Ollie Bearman, and Gabriel Bortoleto as the final finishers for Alpine, Haas and Sauber respectively.

Results

1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Lando Norris (McLaren)
3 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
4 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
5 Alex Albon (Williams)
6 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
7 George Russell (Mercedes)
8 Carlos Sainz (Williams)
9 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
10 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
11 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
13 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
14 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
15 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
16 Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
17 Ollie Bearman (Haas)
18 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
DNF Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
DNF Esteban Ocon (Haas)

Max Verstappen saw off Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri for his second grand prix win of the 2025 Formula 1 season at Imola, as Norris overtook championship leading team-mate Piastri late on.

Imola GP results

1 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
2 Lando Norris (McLaren)
3 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
4 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
5 Alex Albon (Williams)
6 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
7 George Russell (Mercedes)
8 Carlos Sainz (Williams)
9 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
10 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)
11 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
12 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
13 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
14 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
15 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
16 Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
17 Ollie Bearman (Haas)
18 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
DNF Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
DNF Esteban Ocon (Haas)

What takes people to the Isle of Man TT when there are plenty of other racing options that have much less inherent risk?

Well, ask a TT racer that question and they’ll tell you quite simply that there’s no drug quite like setting off from the start line on Glencrutchery Road - and perhaps no one with more experience of that feeling than 23-time TT winner John McGuinness.

McGuinness has been racing at the TT since 1996, and in that time has become not only the third-most successful racer of all time behind only Michael and Joey Dunlop, but has also very much been the TT’s biggest global ambassador thanks to the relationship he’s built with everyone from MotoGP racers to film stars and royalty.

And while at 53 years old he might be going into this year’s event more focused on top 10 finishes than on adding to his record of wins, the Honda Racing rider has been faster than he’s ever been during his pre-season testing programme, something that bodes well for fuelling his addiction to racing at the TT.

“I'm setting personal bests,” he explained to The Race in an exclusive interview that you can hear much more of in both a special episode of The Race MotoGP Podcast next week and in The Race Members’ Club on Patreon.

“I'm still in the pack if you like. We're not going backwards, we're at points-scoring BSB Superstock pace which is not hanging about to be fair, them kids.

“It's like a disease, it's a nightmare, I can't get it out of my system. I just keep getting up in the morning and it's something to do with racing. Have we got this ready, have we got that ready?

“It's like a routine that just takes over your life a lot of the time but it's good though, it is good. It's nice. 

“I keep saying it, but sponsors have faith in me. They let me ride the bike, they don't put any pressure on, just said 'go and enjoy it, if you're eighth, you're eighth, if you're whatever, you're whatever. If you want to stop, stop.’”

• Find all our Isle of Man TT coverage here

Part of that desire to keep going, to keep turning up every year at the TT to race, very much comes from McGuinness’ background. Not just a motorbike racer but rather someone who has lived and breathed bike racing all his life, there’s a distinct impression that even had he never raced the TT, he’d still be sat on the hedge every year watching, something that’s a significant part of his huge fan appeal.

“I was on a bike when I was a toddler,” he explains. “I was at race meetings as a baby with my dad, getting dragged around grass tracks, scramble races, transatlantic jobs and grands prix, it's been part of my DNA I suppose.

“I like bikes, I like them, two strokes, four strokes, fuel injected, fly by wire. I’ve gone through three generations, three decades really of evolving motorcycles.

“It's not a tool for my job, like a trowel when I was a bricky. A motorbike for some people is there to make their wages and it isn't for me, I actually like them.”

That background also helps form at least some of his relationship with the nature of the TT and the inherent risks. Motorcycles are, fundamentally, dangerous things - and while some of the low points of his time at the TT might have left him questioning his choices, McGuinness believes that it’s also what unites people in their love for the race and for bikes in general.

“Yeah there've been some bumps in the road,” he admits. “There's been some scratch your head moments for a lot of people. Why did we do it? But everybody wants to see it, wants to go and see it. Everyone has heard about it, the big roads. 

“The thing is with motorcycles, you can relate to great times, but everybody knows someone who has been hurt on a bike as well. ‘Our Uncle Bob got killed on one of them going to work, on his GPZ550.’ 

“There's that as well, they have that love-hate, that stigma, whatever you want to call it, but when anyone is out on a motorbike, even on a road going for a cup of tea, everyone is happy. I’ve never seen anybody pedalling a bicycle with a smile on their face. It's rubbish. You don't see runners enjoying themselves.”

Perhaps the most frequent comment levelled at TT racers is that they must be insane to do what they do, taking on the 37.73 mile course where, statistically, someone will lose their life competing every year.

But the reality of their mental state couldn’t be further from the truth - specifically because of the dangers posed by the circuit and the challenges involved in learning it well enough to be properly fast.

“If you're nuts,” McGuinness says, “you last five minutes, you're gone, instantly. It's just that fine risk-reward, find that rhythm, fitness, bike, team, everything just all determination and it just lines up. We all have an inner safety barrier, even the top guys. 

“I know it won't look like it from the outside and onboard everyone is like 'f**k...' when the conditions aren't as good, people will come down a mile an hour, we'll all come down a mile an hour.

“If conditions are good enough, we'll go up two miles an hour. it just goes in like a wave of feeling the conditions of the track. I get frustrated with it, they say you're mad, but they want to know about it. Do they want a go? Are they scared of going?” 

And while McGuinness might not be shy about admitting the thrill that the race brings to racers, there’s another factor that he’s well aware of - one that will protect the race’s future perhaps even more than the racers’ desire to compete there.

“Whenever anybody goes,” he insists, “they're never disappointed. I know people have been on holiday to Ibiza and got a s**t hotel and come home, and said 'that was crap, this was crap', but I've never known anyone go to TT and go 'that was crap'. 

“They've all gone ‘wow, the atmosphere, the people, the food, the bars, the whole event’. When a race gets rained off, go and have an ice cream on Peel. It's so good. Same at the North West 200, on the Causeway coast. I've seen kids in pushchairs when I first came here in '94, now they're grown men, welders or brickers or truck drivers.

“The best thing for me, I love when people say thanks for all the enjoyment you've given us over the years. Not the negatives.”

Yuki Tsunoda will start from the pitlane for Formula 1's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix because Red Bull has changed his chassis following his qualifying crash.

The Japanese driver badly damaged his RB21 in a spectacular crash at Imola's second chicane during Q1 – which effectively consigned him to the back of the grid.

The crash was caused by Tsunoda being too aggressive in his first qualifying effort, taking too much kerb on the entry to Turn 5 and losing control after his car bounced back off the ground.

Tsunoda was apologetic afterwards over what he claimed was a silly error.

"Just really stupid from myself, pushing unnecessarily hard," he said. 

"We had a lot of changes to the car, pushing that hard without understanding enough about the car…just very unnecessary pushing that hard from that early stage." 

As the result of the hefty impact, which included him rolling over the top of the tyre barriers before coming to rest the right way up, the team concluded that his car was damaged beyond immediate repair.

Ahead of the race, Red Bull has elected to make a chassis change, which includes taking parts that are of a different specification. 

As this is a breach of F1's parc ferme rules, it means he must start the race from the pitlane.

Beyond the car changes, Red Bull has also taken the opportunity to fit an entirely new power unit. 

This includes a new internal combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K, battery, control electronics and exhaust. These are all part of his normal allocation for the season.

Formula 1 championship leader Oscar Piastri saw off Max Verstappen in a close battle for pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.

Qualifying ran to a significantly delayed schedule after two big Q1 crashes - Yuki Tsunoda's huge Variante Villeneuve shunt and Franco Colapinto going off at Variante Tamburello.

Tsunoda will start from the pitlane after Red Bull elected to fit a new suite of power unit components to his car.

Colapinto was then also on the receiving end of a one-place penalty for a pitbox exit miscommunication - putting him behind Sauber's Gabriel Bortoleto.

As per the stewards, the Alpine debutant was instructed by the team to "creep out" of the pitbox during Q1 without being "fully released" - but misunderstood the instruction and entered the fast lane.

As there was no restart time at that point, it constituted a breach of the race director notes, and thus led to the penalty.

Provisional starting grid

1 Oscar Piastri (McLaren)
2 Max Verstappen (Red Bull)
3 George Russell (Mercedes)
4 Lando Norris (McLaren)
5 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin)
6 Carlos Sainz (Williams)
7 Alex Albon (Williams)
8 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin)
9 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls)
10 Pierre Gasly (Alpine)
11 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
12 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari)
13 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes)
14 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber)
15 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls)
16 Franco Colapinto (Alpine)
17 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber)
18 Esteban Ocon (Haas)
19 Ollie Bearman (Haas)
Pitlane: Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull)