Race winner Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri clinked their champagne bottles, took sips of the bubbly and posed for the customary podium photo, smiling ear-to-ear.
For once this season, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix turned out to be positive for all three drivers. Verstappen, the Dutch reigning world champion, claimed his second win of the season – and fourth successive at Imola – to stay in the championship fight. Finishing second, Norris finally managed to get a better result than McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri in four races.
Unlucky due to the virtual safety car and then the safety car, Australian Piastri managed to overcome the setbacks to fight through the field and take the final step of the podium to stay atop the drivers’ championship standings.
The 2025 Formula 1 season is fast turning into a three-horse race, much to the delight of fans. McLaren undoubtedly have the fastest car which helped Norris lead the championship for the first four races. But four wins, including three consecutive, have helped Piastri snatch the championship lead.
And the relentless Verstappen is lurking behind to snatch any opportunity, just like he did at Imola on Sunday where he jumped from third to first at Turn 1 of the opening lap with a brilliant manoeuvre, never to give the lead away, especially on an old school narrow track where he seemed to make his car wider with his excellent defence.
While the four-time world champion made up for his car lacking pace with brilliant driving earlier in the season, Red Bull’s upgrades ahead of the season’s first European race made Verstappen a happy man.
“I felt confident. I felt at one with the car. We took a step forward with the setup of the car, which helps,” said the Dutchman, whose Red Bull was able to pull away from the McLarens.
There is promise that the tussle for the top finish will intensify. The last time more than two drivers fought for the championship in the season ender was 15 years back when Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso, Mark Webber and Lewis Hamilton all chased the 2010 crown at Abu Dhabi – the first time four drivers fought for the title.
Alonso and Webber were the favourites going into the Abu Dhabi GP but amid their focus to keep the other back, they forgot to cover Vettel and the German went on to win, becoming the youngest ever F1 champion.
Three years prior, Hamilton and Alonso, both racing for McLaren, led the championship standings going into the Brazilian GP – the last race of the 2007 season – but Finn Kimi Raikkonen came out of nowhere to claim victory and the title by a single point, the last time Ferrari won the drivers’ title.
Could this three-horse race also go in favour of an outsider like the last two times? Former F1 race winner Jean Alesi believes it can. The Frenchman, who drove in F1 from 1989 to 2001, recently told HT that Norris and Piastri, though in good form and in a strong car, will continue to snatch points from each other and that will benefit a ruthless driver like Verstappen, who doesn’t cede an inch.
“We are talking about a championship of 24 races. We will see different winners and that will spread points. That can help Max to be world champion,” Alesi said, betting on Verstappen to clinch his fifth title despite having the slower car.
“He has the capacity to drive the car on the limit and make the difference. He’s very strong and experienced, has won the world championship many times and knows how to handle a championship.”
Fans will hope the three continue to battle on the track as this long season grows as such a fight comes once in a blue moon.
If Imola made overtaking tough and still Piastri’s pole position no guarantee for success, the celebrated Monaco street Grand Prix this weekend will make passing next to impossible. Expect more drama as F1 2025 completes one-third of the season.