Verstappen wins as McLaren issues team orders - 2025 Italian GP results

Max Verstappen took his third win of the 2025 Formula 1 season at the Italian Grand Prix, beating the two McLaren drivers in a comfortable race for the Red Bull star.

Verstappen, who had last won a race at Imola in May, controlled the Monza event from the front after overtaking Lando Norris, who had taken the lead at the start.

Norris had been running second for most of the race, but a disastrous pitstop near the end meant he lost the position to Oscar Piastri with seven laps to go.

However, McLaren asked the championship leader to swap positions. Piastri obliged, but sounded unimpressed on the radio.

“I mean, we said that a slow pitstop was part of racing, so I don’t really get what’s changed here,” the Australian said when told the pitstop sequence was like “Hungary last year”.

The result shrank Piastri’s championship lead over Norris to 31 points.

In the end, Verstappen won by nearly 20 seconds from the British driver, with Piastri having to settle for third place.

Charles Leclerc was the best-placed Ferrari driver in fourth, with Mercedes‘ George Russell claiming fifth.

Lewis Hamilton recovered from his grid penalty to take sixth position ahead of the Williams of Alexander Albon.

Gabriel Bortoleto returned to the points with an eighth-place finish ahead of local hero Kimi Antonelli, who finished eighth on the road but had a five-second time penalty for driving erratically.

Isack Hadjar completed the points-paying positions in 10th.

The lack of tyre degradation made for a straightforward race as the frontrunning drivers had no issue extending the first stints on medium tyres for several laps.

Fernando Alonso retired with a suspension failure on lap 25 while running in eighth position.

“This is unbelievable,” Alonso complained on the radio as he retired.

Carlos Sainz and Olivier Bearman were involved in one of the few incidents of the race when they clashed going into the second chicane with 11 laps left.

Both cars spun as a result of the contact, although they were able to continue in the race.

Before the race got going, Nico Hülkenberg was asked to retire his Sauber, the German driving into the pits at the end of the formation lap.

Story of the race

At the start, Norris touched the grass going into the first chicane, the Briton calling Verstappen an “idiot” for the incident.

Norris arrived on the inside, but Verstappen cut through the chicane to keep the lead, which he later was asked to relinquish, the Red Bull driver dully obliging at the end of lap 1.

Behind them, Leclerc took third from Piastri at the start, but the Australian retook it with a bold move around the outside at the second Lesmo. However, the Ferrari driver passed Piastri again a few corners later.

On lap 4, Verstappen used his DRS to retake the lead from Norris, passing the McLaren around the outside of Turn 1.

Piastri also looked set to overtake Leclerc at the same point, but the Ferrari driver cut through the chicane and kept third place. On lap 6, however, the championship leader made the move stick to take the position.

Verstappen was quick to move outside of Norris’ DRS range, opening a three-second gap for lap 10, with Piastri running a further four seconds adrift.

A processional race followed up front as Verstappen kept increasing the gap to Norris, who also grew his advantage over Piastri.

The gap between Verstappen and Norris stabilised around five-six seconds as the leaders decided to extend their opening stints for many laps, Pirelli’s medium tyres degrading a lot less than anticipated.

Leclerc pitted from fourth on lap 34, the Ferrari driver switching to hard tyres, the Monegasque questioning why he was asked to pit earlier than his rivals.

Verstappen finally made his pitstop with 15 laps to go, the Red Bull driver also moving to hard tyres. He rejoined the track in third place behind the two McLarens.

Piastri was the first of the McLaren drivers to pit, with seven laps to go, moving to the soft tyres.

Norris followed suit a lap later, but the pitstop took four seconds longer than Piastri’s, the Briton losing second place to his team-mate.

However, Piastri was asked to give up the position, which he did moments later, settling for third place behind Verstappen and Norris.

2025 Italian GP results