Five winners and five losers from F1’s 2025 Italian Grand Prix

The 2025 Italian Grand Prix will be remembered for a surprise show of dominance and a controversial team orders call.

Monza delivered a winner no one predicted but was ultimately a rather tame race that sparked into life thanks to an awkward late driver swap involving the leading title protagonists.

Here are our biggest winners and losers from the fastest F1 race of all time…

Winner - Max Verstappen

Max Verstappen ended his F1 win drought in style at Monza as he won the Italian Grand Prix at a canter, having overcome the McLarens in both qualifying and the race.

Aside from one moment of misjudgement at the start, which saw Verstappen surrender the lead to Lando Norris before repassing the McLaren, the four-time world champion was in complete control.

Verstappen checked out in front and won by nearly 20 seconds with a commanding performance reminiscent of his glory days as he broke two F1 records in the process.

Loser - Oscar Piastri

Oscar Piastri can be forgiven for feeling slightly hard done by following McLaren’s controversial call to ask the championship leader to drop back behind Norris following a slow pit stop for his rival.

While many can understand McLaren’s decision to swap their drivers, there is an argument that Piastri should have been entitled to beat Norris due to the Briton suffering a slow pit stop which is ultimately a part of racing.

Piastri comes away from Italy with a healthy advantage still intact but has lost three points - needlessly in his view - that could prove to be pivotal come the end of the season in a championship battle set to be determined by fine margins.

Winner - Lando Norris

McLaren’s logic at trying to ensure fairness in the title race represented a gift for Norris, who otherwise would have lost more ground to teammate Piastri.

This was something of a get out of jail free card for Norris, who will absolutely take it after the huge slice of misfortune he suffered last weekend at Zandvoort.

Norris will certainly leave Monza believing he has McLaren’s full support, while Piastri may have some questions.

Loser - Mercedes

It was a difficult race for Mercedes who floundered to fifth and ninth. George Russell shadowed Charles Leclerc for much of the opening stint but when it was clear he could not get past, he ended up being in no-man’s land between the Ferraris.

Mercedes’ pace was underwhelming, while Kimi Antonelli made several mistakes and picked up another time penalty that demoted him from eighth to end an otherwise steady weekend on a sour note.

Winner - Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton was in a much happier place with his Ferrari at Monza as he turned in a mighty recovery to sixth place having started 10th due to a grid penalty picked up at the previous round.

The seven-time world champion was much closer to Leclerc all weekend and ended up just two positions behind the Monegasque with a strong fightback on Sunday. There is still work to be done, but Hamilton will hope this is the start of a more positive trend going forward.

Loser - Yuki Tsunoda

On a day his teammate blitzed the field, Yuki Tsunoda had another race he will want to forget in a hurry. After damaging his Red Bull in a clumsy clash with former teammate Liam Lawson, Tsunoda was left to limp home to a frustrating 13th as his difficult season continues.

Winner - Gabriel Bortoleto

Gabriel Bortoleto continues to show he is an F1 star of the future. The Brazilian outqualifed Sauber teammate Nico Hulkenberg for the sixth round in a row and grabbed a brilliant eighth on the grid, which he converted into another strong points haul.

Loser - Haas 

Both Haas drivers were on the receiving end of penalties in a point-less race for the American squad, with Oliver Bearman’s punishment for being deemed to have caused a collision with Carlos Sainz worryingly leaving him just two penalty points away from a race ban.

Winner - Isack Hadjar

Zandvoort’s podium hero was left a frustrated figure after suffering his first Q1 elimination in F1, but Isack Hadjar impressively bounced back on Sunday as he charged from the pitlane to a point by finishing 10th.

Loser - Aston Martin

Aston Martin missed out on points on a weekend three of their nearest midfield rivals all scored. Fernando Alonso’s suspension failure wrecked his hopes of a top-10 finish after an excellent qualifying, while Lance Stroll trundled home P18 on a poor weekend for driver and team.