Five Formula 1 Winners & Losers: Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

Photo from the BBC

Imola, a track where it’s usually very difficult to pass, actually gave us solid racing!

It also, as always, gave us some winners and some losers.

And here we go.

Losers

5. Kimi Antonelli

It was the young Italian’s first ever home race in Formula 1, and it was a race he was doing well in.

Unfortunately, it ended early due to a mechanical error.

Not his fault, but a big bummer regardless in front of his friends and family.

4. Oliver Bearman

Oliver Bearman thought he did enough to get into Q2, but a red flag came out just barely before he crossed the line to finish his lap.

The field is frozen, Bearman’s time didn’t count, and he had to start 19th.

After that, his race was extremely unproductive, and he finished last on the track.

3. Franco Colapinto

Colapinto replaced Jack Doohan because Alpine felt they could get better results than what they were getting, and he returned their belief in him by crashing in qualifying and finishing 16th.

Not the best start at his new team.

2. Aston Martin

A genius call in qualifying got both Aston Martin cars into the top 10, and a great chance at a big double points finish.

Unlucky strategy decisions meant that they both finished outside of the points.

Aston really needed those points. Luck wasn’t going to give it to them.

1. McLaren

This is a tough one, because McLaren didn’t do anything wrong.

They tried an alternate strategy with Oscar Piastri. It wasn’t egregious. It just didn’t work.

They tried to one stop Lando Norris, and one lap after he pit and gave the position back to his teammate, the virtual safety car came out.

That led to Norris having to pass Piastri off track, and letting Max Verstappen waltz away to a victory.

The team did nothing wrong. The drivers did nothing wrong.

The luck just didn’t go their way, and each time it doesn’t, Verstappen is there to pounce.

McLaren can’t lose this drivers championship.

And yet, they just might.

Winners

5. Yuki Tsunoda

Tsunoda had a terrible crash in qualifying and thankfully was ok, but had to start in the pit lane at a track where it is very difficult to overtake.

Despite that, Tsunoda stayed clean and used smart strategy to finish 10th and get a point out of the weekend.

It could have been a lot worse.

4. Isack Hadjar

Another fantastic weekend for Hadjar, who has consistently be incredibly impressive with Racing Bulls.

I did not expect this level of performance from him this early in his career.

3. Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton’s first race in Italy as a Ferrari driver was getting off to a disastrous start, as he and his teammate Charles Leclerc qualified 12th and 11th respectively.

But Hamilton’s clean driving and good strategy got the Brit to drive all the way up to 4th and get a huge chunk of points.

He was thrilled with the drive, as he should be.

2. Alex Albon

The performance from Williams in general this season has been remarkable, and Alex Albon’s 5th place finish is another example of that.

A podium was very much so on the table, and the fact it’s slightly a let down they didn’t get one says a lot about how good Albon and the team as a whole have been.

It’s also great to see. Williams belongs at the front.

1. Max Verstappen

Once again, Max Verstappen is winning races he has no business winning.

The car isn’t the best, but he put the car in 2nd in qualifying and, knowing how important track position is at Imola, had one of the greatest turn one overtakes I have ever seen to take the lead and never look back.

I know I say it a lot, but it’s still true.

Nobody is better than him right now.