Piastri Tops 2025 Emilia Romagna GP Practice

McLaren dominated Friday Practice for 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Oscar Piastri topped both sessions. 

Piastri headed Norris in both sessions as McLaren comfortably topped the timesheets in both sessions with 0.032 seconds separating the pair in FP1 then 0.025s in FP2.

Alpine and Williams meanwhile looked surprisingly competitive across both sessions as many teams introduced upgrades for the first European race of the season.

 

FP1

Haas’ Oliver Bearman was first on track and set 1m 21.739 as the initial benchmark time but the times soon tumbled as Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso found himself quickest in the opening eight minutes with 1m 18.281.

Norris soon took control at the top of the timesheet and twice lowered the benchmark time to 1m 17.125 in the 17th minute, only for Mercedes; George Russell to respond three minutes later with 1m 16.599 to go quickest.

Nobody managed to better Russell’s lap time until Oscar Piastri put his McLaren quickest in the 33rd minute with 1m 16.545, before Norris then displaced Russell to third six minutes later as he fell 0.032s shy of his teammate.

The session eventually came to a premature end after Sauber’s Gabriel Bortoleto spun out at the second part of the Rivazza, which meant that Piastri finished fastest with the top five split by 0.096s.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1m 16.545
2	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.032
3	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 0.052
4	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.054
5	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.096
6	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 0.151
7	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.360
8	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.377
9	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 0.380
10	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 0.453
11	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 0.487
12	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.532
13	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 0.549
14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.576
15	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 0.741
16	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 0.811
17	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 0.828
18	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 0.901
19	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 1.096
20	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 1.117

 

FP2

Bearman was again first out on track and set 1m 17.353 as the initial benchmark on medium tyres which was quickly usurped by several drivers as Norris topped the first set of flying laps with 1m 16.074 – also set on the medium tyre.

Norris then lowered the benchmark to 1m 15.952 ahead of Sainz and Albon with Piastri fourth as the first runs ended.

Russell was the first driver to attempt a soft-tyre qualifying simulation and went quickest with 1m 15.693 in the 20th minute.

Norris responded seven minutes later with 1m 15.318 to go fastest again but Piastri moments later found 0.025s to top the session with 1m 15.293 from Norris, whilst Gasly was a surprised third-fastest for Alpine.

The session effectively came to a premature end with six minutes left on the clock after Hadjar spun out at Tamburello and beached his rear tyres in the gravel, amidst a valiant attempt to re-join the circuit, although the session did ultimately resume with two minutes left.

Position	Driver	Team	Time
1	Oscar Piastri	McLaren	1m 15.293
2	Lando Norris	McLaren	+ 0.025
3	Pierre Gasly	Alpine	+ 0.276
4	George Russell	Mercedes	+ 0.400
5	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	+ 0.442
6	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	+ 0.475
7	Isack Hadjar	Racing Bulls	+ 0.499
8	Yuki Tsunoda	Red Bull	+ 0.534
9	Alex Albon	Williams	+ 0.623
10	Carlos Sainz	Williams	+ 0.641
11	Lewis Hamilton	Ferrari	+ 0.650
12	Oliver Bearman	Haas	+ 0.716
13	Franco Colapinto	Alpine	+ 0.751
14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin	+ 0.927
15	Liam Lawson	Racing Bulls	+ 0.962
16	Gabriel Bortoleto	Sauber	+ 1.046
17	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	+ 1.048
18	Andrea Kimi Antonelli	Mercedes	+ 1.113
19	Nico Hulkenberg	Sauber	+ 1.126
20	Esteban Ocon	Haas	+ 1.127