formula 1
Verstappen dupe McLaren and wins in Imola
Updated on May 18, 2025 – 4:41 p.m.Reading time: 2 min.
Immediately after the start, Max Verstappen overtakes his competitor. Even a safety car cannot stop it.
Max Verstappen won the Grand Prix of Imola. The reigning world champion, rid of second place, conquered the leadership of McLaren driver Oscar Piatri with a fantastic overtaking maneuver right after the start, who had secured pole position on Saturday.
As a result, McLaren panicked and brought Piatri into the box too early, causing the Australian back. His teammate Lando Norris tried to persecute Verstappen, but could not catch up. Then Verstappen was also lucky: only one round after the pursuer Norris drove to the box, the virtual safety car came through a failure of Haas pilot Esteban Ocon. The Dutch could save a lot of time when it stops and was finally open and off.
A late Safety Car pushed the field together again, Verstappen lost his lead. But at the restart, the world champion kept ahead of Piatri and drove home. Behind it the McLaren fought for second place. Norris was able to overtake piatri on fresher. For Piatri, a winning streak of three races ends, Verstappen won his second win of the season.
Piatri with 146 points leads in the World Cup classification, Norris comes to 133 and Verstappen after his 65th career victory to 124 points. The classic in Monaco will continue next weekend.
The two Ferrari, who had only started eleven and twelve, made a strong catch -up. Lewis Hamilton finished fourth, team -mate Charles Leclerc became sixth.
The only German Nico Hülkenberg reached twelfth place in his clean.