Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari suffer Imola GP embarrassment as Max Verstappen denied pole

Oscar Piastri held off the challenge of to secure pole position for the . But there was disaster for the Tifosi in the stands at Imola who watched with horror as and both failed to reach the top 10 for Ferrari.

Their best laps were good enough only for 11th and 12th places on the grid for Sunday's race. And the other home hero, teenager , fared even worse by qualifying just 13th on the track he grew up just 20 miles away from.

It also wasn't a great qualifying performance again from who couldn't find his groove on his final run. He had to settle for fourth on the grid, bettered again by whose impressively consistent start to the season continues.

But it was Piastri again on pole edging out Verstappen despite making a mistake towards the end of his final effort. There were just three-hundredths of a second separating them when the dust settled, with Russell a further tenth back but Norris was more than three-tenths of the pace of his team-mate.

Qualifying began in dramatic fashion when , the impact flipping his . Fortunately, it landed the right way up again and the Japanese driver did not suffer any lasting damage.

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But it did mean he would end Q1 at the bottom of the timesheets having not completed a flying lap. So just four of the 19 still competing when qualifying resumed after around 15 minutes would be left disappointed at the end of that first part of the session.

Franco Colapinto also wasn't too pleased when, with no time left on the clock, he crashed his to bring a premature end to the session. He was 14th on the timesheets at the time but wouldn't be able to compete in Q2.

And the timing of the crash left , Esteban Ocon, Nico Hulkenberg and in the bottom five. But Bearman was highly frustrated, believing that he had completed the lap he was on before the red flags came out, which would have been good enough for a place in Q2.

It took more than 10 minutes for race control to settle the matter, delaying the start of Q2 again. But the locals were left wishing it hadn't resumed when they saw who had been eliminated at the end of it.

Leclerc and Hamilton were eighth and ninth with three cars still to finish their final flying laps. and the two cars all went quicker, meaning a stunning double Ferrari elimination condemning Leclerc to 11th on the grid and Hamilton to 12th, while Bologna-born home hero Antonelli was also only 13th fastest in the Mercedes.

Piastri took pole from Verstappen with Russell ahead of Norris on the second row. produced by far his best qualifying result of the year to go fifth fastest with Aston Martin's upgrades clearly working a treat, as was also in the top 10.

Full 2025 Imola Grand Prix qualifying result

Oscar Piastri - McLaren

Max Verstappen - Red Bull

George Russell - Mercedes

Lando Norris - McLaren

Fernando Alonso - Aston Martin

Carlos Sainz - Williams

Alex Albon - Williams

Lance Stroll - Aston Martin

Isack Hadjar - Racing Bulls

Pierre Gasly - Alpine

Charles Leclerc - Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton - Ferrari

Kimi Antonelli - Mercedes

Gabriel Bortoleto - Sauber

Franco Colapinto - Alpine

Liam Lawson - Racing Bulls

Nico Hulkenberg - Sauber

Esteban Ocon - Haas

Oliver Bearman - Haas

Yuki Tsunoda - Red Bull