Emilia Romagna GP: Piastri Leads Imola Practice One

McLaren`s Oscar Piastri, who leads the world championship standings, narrowly secured the fastest time ahead of his teammate Lando Norris during a competitive Practice One session at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. Many leading teams revealed significant car upgrades at the historic Imola circuit.

As the first European round of the season and the start of a crucial triple-header, the Imola race weekend was widely expected to be the venue for teams to introduce their first substantial upgrade packages of 2025.

McLaren, currently leading the title race, set the early pace thanks to Piastri and Norris. The top five drivers, however, were separated by a mere 0.096 seconds and represented three different teams.

Piastri recorded the fastest lap with a time of 1:16.545, finishing just 0.032 seconds ahead of Norris.

Carlos Sainz of Williams, George Russell of Mercedes, and Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari also finished within a tenth of a second of Piastri`s benchmark time.

Hamilton had earlier reported issues with the Ferrari car`s braking and went off track at the Variante Alta chicane midway through the session. His teammate Charles Leclerc, who had missed Thursday`s media day due to illness, was 12th fastest.

Max Verstappen finished only seventh, 0.3 seconds off the pace. He was heard complaining over Red Bull team radio about the handling of the upgraded car`s rear end and even visibly banged his steering wheel in frustration towards the end of the session.

Red Bull introduced changes to the car`s engine cover and sidepods for this weekend, with revisions described as resembling McLaren`s title-leading MCL39 design.

“The track was evolving pretty quickly,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner told the press. “We didn`t get clean laps or a proper lap in on those second set of tyres.”

Following a challenging week after the Miami race, which saw team boss Oliver Oakes depart and Jack Doohan replaced by Franco Colapinto, Alpine had a more stable start on track. Pierre Gasly finished sixth fastest.

Colapinto was 17th, 0.7 seconds behind his teammate, and will aim to close that gap as he gains confidence in the car.

The session was red-flagged with two minutes remaining when Sauber`s Gabriel Bortoleto ran off the road and hit the barriers exiting the second Rivazza corner.

This was an unfortunate end to an otherwise promising opening session for Sauber, who finished ninth and tenth fastest with Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg respectively.

Key Car Upgrades Introduced

For their first home race of the season, Ferrari, looking to improve their performance, introduced what has been described as “small but hopefully significant” changes to the rear of their SF-25 car. These updates include a different rear wing for increased downforce and modifications to the car`s rear corners.

Red Bull`s RB21 features a McLaren-like reprofiled engine cover and air inlet, along with revisions to the rear suspension and rear corners. McLaren`s leading challenger also includes rear section changes and a new front suspension.

Mercedes focused their Imola upgrades on the front of their car, with alterations to the suspension and wing elements.

Struggling Aston Martin unveiled the most extensive upgrade package. Lance Stroll ran seven new items on his car, while Fernando Alonso evaluated performance using the older specification.

Only Williams, who are reportedly already shifting development focus to the 2026 rule changes despite a strong start to the season, and Sauber did not introduce any new parts for this event.

Emilia Romagna GP Practice One Timesheet