Do we go to another dominant Saturday from McLaren, or their rivals will emerge a surprise in the qualification of Formula 1 at the Gran Prize of Emilia Romagna?
The McLaren duo of Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris has led the way over the three practice sessions. Piastri led the synchronization sheets in FP1 and FP2, with Norris Right Beind in P2, while Norris was the fastest today in FP3, with Piestri behind him in second place.
An important story to see in today’s classification session is the Soft C6 compound, which is used for the first time this season in Icola. While the drivers changed the middle compound to the SOFTS at the end of FP3, few improvements were found in the return times. The possible reason? Soft tires overheated at the end of the return, reducing grip levels through the few final corners of the circuit.
That could change the way the equipment approaches their qualification of the duration of the heating laps, which could increase the traffic that we see the duration Q1.
It could be a chaotic qualification session, and we have it live covered for you here in SB Nation, From the beginning of Q1 to the session.
Here is the provisional grid, which we will complete as the Qualification is developed in Icola:
Provisional qualification results Emilia Romagna GP
| Row | Position | Driver | Equipment | Position | Driver | Equipment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Row | Position | Driver | Equipment | Position | Driver | Equipment |
| Row 1 | 1 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 2 | Max Verstappen | Bull Red |
| Row 2 | 3 | George Russell | Mercedes | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren |
| Row 3 | 5 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | 6 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | Williams |
| Row 4 | 7 | Alex Albon | Williams | 8 | Walk Lance | Aston Martin |
| Row 5 | 9 | Isack hadjar | VCARB | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine |
| Row 6 | 11 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 12 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari |
| Row 7 | 13 | Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | 14 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Splash |
| Row 8 | 15 | Franco Colapint | Alpine | 16 | Liam Lawson | VCARB |
| Row 9 | 17 | Nico Hülkenberg | Splash | 18 | Esteban Ocon | hare |
| Row 10 | 19 | Oliver Bearman | hare | 20 | Yuki Tsunoda | Bull Red |
Note: The updates are all in the east time.
Q3 qualified notes
11:39: “It was a great session, a difficult session,” Piastri Trackside reports to Davide Valsecchi. “Excited in tomorrow.”
“I think everything was doing very well, it’s just that the softest compound is really widespread to keep alive,” says Verstappen to Valsecchi. “Maybe they were too soft for this track … I felt a bit happy in the middle.”
“We thought that perhaps the middle tire was fast, and it turned out to be a good option. Or for the course it is more committed to tomorrow, but it was worth returning in the top three,” Russell tells Valsecchi. “It’s always a surprise to be so close to McLaren, because they are very good.”
11:38: F1TV reports that Alonso described the fifth in a set of scrubbing media.
11:35: Russell jumps ahead of Norris in the middle complex, but the day belongs to Oscar Piasstri. His lap takes the pole position, only 0.034 seconds ahead of Verstappen.
Here is your provisional top.
PIASTRI
Rein
Russell
Norris
Alonso
Sainz
Alarm
Walk
Hadjar
Gaseous
11:34: Verstappen was purple through the first sector, but had a little scruffy second sector.
Norris’s time was good for the third.
11:33: Pastri’s final return has it ahead of Verstappen’s reference time through the first two sectors.
11:30: Verstappen is the first of the pilots to get out of the garage for a final lap. They remain approximately three minutes in Q3 and the Pole posture is on the line.
Again, Aston Martin attacks medium tires for Alonso and Pele, but they are not alone. George Russell leaves the Mercedes garage with a set of screwed media on his W16.
11:27: The opening of the thrust turns is carried out and is vast in the provisional post, just ahead of Piasstri.
Here are the top ten, with each driver’s preparation for one more thrust:
Rein
PIASTRI
Norris
Russell
Hadjar
Walk
Alonso
Sainz
Alarm
Gaseous
11:22: The Q3 begins and the ten drivers come out in a set of soft tires.
11:20: I can’t remember the last time we took a tire balance that dates back to Saturday, this was the number of each complex that the drivers had today:
The pneumics to be left on the weekend. It will be a career at 1 stop.
Remimo tires for the weekend. It will be a 1 stop race. pic.twitter.com/mwq8hxqxyh
– Albert Fábra (@albertfabega) May 16, 2025
What we have just seen from Aston Martin at the end of the second quarter, do we see more media sets here in Q3?
Q2 qualification notes
11:16: Here are the top ten of Q2:
Sainz
PIASTRI
Norris
Russell
Rein
Alonso
Walk
Gaseous
Hadjar
Alarm
11:15: Aston Martin’s Gamble Works. Both Pastor and Alonso advance, with a walk in P7 and Alonso in P6.
Who do they knock? The Ferrari duo of Leclerc and Hamilton. Leclerc ends in P11 and Hamilton in P12. Antonelli, Bortoleto and Colapinto join the elimination zone.
11:14: Sainz posts and Absolute Bangger to go p1 as the clock expires.
11:09: With less than four remaining minutes in the second quarter, cars roar their garage answers. Interestingly, both Alonso and Stroll have a set of medium -sized medium tires, since Aston Martin is betting that C5 media are faster than Softs C6.
11:08: Williams reports that both Albon and Sainz used soft tires for their first laps in the second quarter. Albon is currently P9 in the time sheets, while Albon is in P13.
11:06: With just under seven minutes, removing in the second quarter, the five lower drivers are: walking, Gasly, Albon, Bortoleto and Colapinto.
11:04: The first thrust turns are made and we have a McLaren One-Two on the timing leaves, with piastri only 0.020 seconds ahead of Norris.
11:01: As a reminder, we have 14 cars in the second quarter, since Colapinto advanced to Q2, but his accident at the end of the first quarter ended his day.
10:59: Q2 is finally underway and in fact it is Bortoleto who leads to the track first, followed by Verstappen.
10:58: Haas reports that Bearman’s lap has not restored the leg, and is not in the qualification.
10:56: Bortoleto leaves the garage and takes his place in Pit Lane, so he is convinced that he is over …
Now we wait to see if I will also send Bearman.
10:53: The career officials report that Q2 will begin at 4:58 local time/10: 58 Eastern time.
Alex Brundle in F1TV now shows repetitions that illustrate that Bearman can advance after everything.
10:51: This extended delay is allowing some dark clouds to surround …
10:49: Both Haas and F1 confirm that Bearman’s last return is under more review:
10:46: The career officials have again delayed the beginning of the first quarter when verifying the barrier after the collapint accident.
Bearman has not yet left VF-25.
10:44: Q2 will begin at 4:46 local time/10: 46 EAStern.
Q1 Qualification Notes
10:43: F1 confirms that Bearman has been eliminated. Bortoleto advances to Q2.
10:42: F1TV repetitions seem to confirm that the red flag had come out before Bearman completed his lap.
10:38: Jolyon Palmer in F1TV points out that it was lost in the chaos of the end of Q1 is the fact that the Lance promenade jumped to P4 in a set of average tires.
Yes, Aston Martin brought an update package to Icola, but the average compound could be faster than soft tires C6 at this time.
Besides … there is some climate in the distance. More chaos could be on the horizon, literally and figuratively.
10:35: The start of Q2 will be delayed.
That will give us some time to solve the controversy that is being developed in Icola. The F1 career officials have eliminated Bearman’s time, which drops it to P19 and promises Bortoleto in Q2 in P15.
Haas will probably argue that he completed his return before the collapint accident, but we will see how career administrators handle this situation.
10:34: Colapinto technically advances Q2 in P15, but its qualification session is over.
Bearman survives, since he published a return that was good enough to move to Q2 just before Colapinto hit the wall in curve 4.
10:33: Another great accident, like Franco Colapinto has found the barrier in curve 4. As things are, the five eliminated drivers are bortoleto, Lawson, Hülkenberg, Ocon and Tsunoda.
Colapinto informs that it is fine while it leaves its A525.
10:32: The final round of Bortoleto sees him jump to P15, so he has the opportunity to advance in Q2.
However, his teammate Hülkenberg found the gravel at the end of his lap and will come out in the first quarter.
10:30: With two remaining minutes in the first quarter, its five lower drivers who run the risk of eliminating are: Nico Hülkenberg, Gabriel Bortoleto, Oliver Bearman, Esteban Ocon and Tsunoda, whose accident has ended his day.
10:29: Only three minutes remain in the first quarter, and the cars are dating for their final laps. In particular, the Lance Paseo left the garage with a set of medium -tires C5 Bolten in its AMR25. The teams have been fighting with the soft complex C6 as noted above.
10:28: The times are coming as Q1 continues, and surprise surprise, Max Verstappen is currently in P1.
F1TV repetitions show several drivers, including Norris, Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso that deal with some slides of the racing line and are in the gravel.
10:19: The session will resume at 4:20 local time/10: 20 EAStern. With a minute before the light becomes green, the cars begin to place in Pit Lane.
10:16: The red flag is still out in Icola after the derivation of Tsunoda.
You can see a repetition of the incident here:
10:08: Tsunoda is out of the car and moves away from RB21, and can get into the medical car.
His RB21 has suffered significant damage, and he is likely to be looking at a beginning of Pit Lane tomorrow.
10:06: Red flag. Yuki Tsunoda has left the line towards the wall with force, with the impact with the wall turning its RB21.
10:05: We have some early times in the first quarter, and at this time Alexander Albon is on the synchronization sheets.
Perfect Mora to connect my chat with the Williams driver since the beginning of the week.
10:00: We have a green light in Icola, and Q1 is underway. There are 18 minutes on the clock, and traffic will be a massive factor like Nuds.
Prequalifying notes
9:55: The McLaren CEO, Zak Brown, predicts that the first three in the qualification will be Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen in some order. Take that for what is worth.
9:47: Duration The F1TV prequalifier show, Flavio Briatore talks with Lawrence Barretto about the change of Jack Doohan to Franco Colapinto. Brosta brush the idea that Colapinto only has five races in the car to demonstrate his value in Alpine, stating that how much collapth lasts to the “performance”.
