Piastri sweeps Friday

Australia’s championship leader Oscar Piastri is the man to beat at Imola, sweeping both Free Practice sessions at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

After starting the weekend by topping a McLaren one-two, Piastri did it again in another eventful session.

Free Practice 2 was much faster with the face dipping well into the 1m15s bracket and the championship leader again starved off teammate Lando Norris.

Piastri’s 1:15.293 snuck clear of Norris by 0.025s, while Pierre Gasly impressed to put his Alpine into the top three.

Gasly was the only driver within four tenths of Piastri as George Russell overcame Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc in a close fight for fourth.

It was a session plagued with brake issues for Ferrari drivers with Lewis Hamilton only getting 11^th.

There was once again late drama as Isack Hadjar got stuck at Tamburello.

Almost the entire field started the session on the Mediums and McLaren resumed its stranglehold with Norris leading the way this time.

Norris’ 1:16.074 was the early benchmark, but it was not a McLaren one-two with Verstappen splitting the teammates 0.345s adrift.

Russell was the only driver not to post a time in the first eight laps, but it was worth the wait as he shot to second.

Traffic issues were starting to become a factor as Alonso “nearly crashed” with a slow-moving Colapinto on the entry to Tamburello.

Williams came out with strong speed, ending the opening 10 minutes with a strong one-two.

Sainz was the first to post a 1m15s time with teammate Albon in his slipstream just 0.040s away.

But Williams’ time at the top was short lived as Norris quickly retook the lead with a 1:15.952.

Russell was the first to fire a lap on the Soft tyre and find a further 0.259s.

Verstappen was next to have a crack on fresh Softs, but fell 0.042s short as Leclerc and Hadjar also came within a tenth.

Once again McLaren had the most speed with Norris and Piastri wasting no time in setting some purple sectors.

The teammates flew in their first lap on Softs as Norris found a further three tenths.

However, again Piastri had his measure and reclaimed P1 by a slender 0.025s despite not quite nailing the final sector.

The Brit tried to respond, but made a mistake coming out of Rivazza and had to back out.

Gasly also made an impressive third place, while Antonelli had to back out after trimming the grass at Variante Alta.

The session had been building to the final seven minutes, only for another late red flag to arrive.

This time it was another rookie in Hadjar, who had a wild moment coming out of Tamburello.

The Frenchman got crossed up coming out of the right hander and could not stop himself from spinning through the gravel before finding the outside fence along the river.

Hadjar did his best to recover, escaping the tyre barrier and getting through the gravel trap, only to get the car wedged on the grass verge.

It was a blow for Hadjar, having shown strong pace, sitting seventh, eight places higher than Lawson.

This time the session was able to be resumed, albeit with only two and a half minutes available.

Everyone still took the opportunity to get a late lap in, but there was no movement on the leaderboard.

Piastri was the undoubted king of Friday,  but things only get more intense with FP3 at 20.30 and Qualifying starting at midnight.

2025 Emila Romagna Grand Prix Free Practice 3 results

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