After a week of absence, the Formula 1 paddock heads to the historic Imola circuit for the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, and with a fresh face behind the wheel of the Alpine and upgrades to both Mercedes and Ferrari, this is going to be a good one! Want to know what happened on Day 1? We here at Supercars.com.GH have got you covered!
Free Practice 1
After finishing the last race weekend on the top step of the podium, Oscar Piastri was back to his dominating ways as he topped the timesheets in the first practice session for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. The McLaren driver set a blistering pace of 1m 16.545s, narrowly edging out his teammate Lando Norris by a mere 0.032 seconds. Carlos Sainz surprisingly put his Williams in third, closely followed by George Russell in the Mercedes, with the top four drivers separated by less than six-hundredths of a second.
The session saw Franco Colapinto make his return to F1 with Alpine, replacing Jack Doohan for the next five races. Charles Leclerc, back after missing media day due to illness, had a somewhat eventful session, narrowly avoiding a collision with Fernando Alonso and later running wide into the gravel. He eventually finished in 12th, struggling with “horrible helmet lift,” while teammate Lewis Hamilton reported his Ferrari was difficult to slow down, ending the session in fifth.
The session wasn’t without drama, as Kick Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto suffered a crash in the dying minutes, bringing out the red flags and ending the session prematurely. Alex Albon also had some hairy moments in his Williams, bouncing over kerbs and briefly venturing into the gravel.
Free Practice 2
The story remained the same when FP2 came to a close, as the McLaren pair once again locked out the top two positions, underlining their strong pace at Imola. Oscar Piastri finished fastest with a time of 1m 15.293s, just 0.025s ahead of his teammate Lando Norris, who had briefly held the top spot earlier in the session.
Traffic proved to be a significant challenge throughout the session, with several near misses reported. Fernando Alonso was particularly vocal, claiming he “nearly crashed” due to an incident with Franco Colapinto exiting the pits. Hamilton, who finished down in 11th, reported braking issues with his Ferrari and had multiple encounters with traffic, including a significant oversteer at the first chicane.
The session was interrupted by a late red flag with just six minutes remaining when Isack Hadjar spun his Racing Bulls car into the gravel at the Tamburello Chicane. Despite briefly getting his car moving again, he ultimately became beached, bringing the session to a halt.
As usual, McLaren is on top, but will any Team be able to offer up a challenge tomorrow? Keep in touch with Supercars.com.GH to find out!