The 2025 F1 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix weekend continues with an important qualifying session ahead.
With overtaking notoriously difficult at Imola, securing a high grid position is imperative to a strong race result.
McLaren dominated Friday practice, with Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris leading the timesheets in both sessions.
It's close behind the McLarens. Alpine and Williams showed impressive pace, while Red Bull and Ferrari have work to do after various issues plagued Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton respectively.
Remarkably, the margin for pole position has been less than a tenth at all but one of the six rounds so far this season, underlining just how tight and competitive qualifying is in 2025.
We look set for another close battle at Imola. Q1 gets underway at 3pm BST.
We are around 40 minutes away from the start of what is set to be a crucial qualifying session at Imola.
Given the tight and twisty nature of this classic F1 track, which makes overtaking tricky, the grid order could prove to be pivotal come race day.
McLaren look the team to beat after dominating practice, with Oscar Piastri leading both of Fridays sessions ahead of Lando Norris, who turned the tables on his teammate in Saturday morning's FP3.
It is incredibly tight behind and Red Bull's Max Verstappen appears to be the nearest challenger after bouncing back from a difficult Friday.
It appears to be McLaren's pole position to lose, but can anyone else spring a surprise?
Norris, Piastri, Verstappen, Antonelli, Leclerc, Sainz, Hadjar, Russell, Albon and Hamilton.
Norris tops the session by 0.1s ahead of Piastri. Verstappen completes the top three.
A better lap from Leclerc as he moves into fifth, 0.5s down on the McLarens.
Hamilton moves into 10th despite running wide and tipping a tyre into the gravel there.
Piastri has also moved up the order, making it a McLaren 1-2 once again.
Norris, Verstappen, Piastri, Antonelli, Sainz, Hadjar, Leclerc, Russell, Albon and Alonso.
On the softs, Norris goes fastest with a 1m14.897s. That puts him 0.181s ahead of Verstappen's medium time from earlier.
He doesn't improve on the softer tyre. He remains at the top of the timesheets, for now.
Isack Hadjar doing a practice start sees Carlos Sainz exiting the pit lane just in time! š®#F1#ImolaGPpic.twitter.com/rSlZhPfnjq
ā Formula 1 (@F1) May 17, 2025
Verstappen, Norris, Sainz, Hadjar, Leclerc, Russell, Albon, Piastri, Hamilton and Antonelli.
Verstappen finds a small improvement in the RB21 to extend his advantage to nearly 0.2s over Norris.
Verstappen, Norris, Hadjar, Leclerc, Piastri, Hamilton, Sainz, Albon, Tsunoda and Russell.
It's not enough to beat Verstappen, though. A tenth off for Norris.
A 1m15.130s for Verstappen puts him back on top, 0.3s ahead of Hadjar.
He's gone fastest for Racing Bulls with a 1m15.508s, 0.021s ahead of Leclerc.
Verstappen, Piastri, Hamilton, Bearman, Tsunoda, Lawson, Gasly, Leclerc, Hadjar and Alonso.
A 1m15.833s puts Piastri top of the timesheets.
That's quickly beaten by Verstappen, who goes 0.2s ahead.
Hamilton has improved his benchmark to a 1m15.866s. Leclerc has gone third, 0.8s off his teammate.
Hamilton is on top currently, 0.3s ahead of Bortoleto, who set his time on the softs.
Hamilton sets a 1m16.983s in the Ferrari. That's around 1.0s off the best time he set in FP2.
Hamilton breaks the silence and hits the track on the medium tyres.
No cars out on track currently.
The final practice session of the weekend at Imola is now underway.
