Some Formula 1 drivers' and teams' races were turned on their heads by strategy calls at Imola.
Others' fates looked to have been determined long before that.
Here's our pick of winners and losers from the 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix:
Loser: Oscar Piastri
Piastri was unlucky to suffer a six-point swing against Lando Norris, still his main title rival, as a consequence of the timing of the two race interruptions.
But the defeat against Verstappen was by and large all his own doing. As George Russell, irritated on the team radio immediately after the fact, said of Piastri's approach to Turn 1: "If you leave the door open, you know Max is going to take it. The door was open. And he took it. So that was a bit frustrating."
Russell felt Piastri could've ensured he led out of Turn 1, with Russell second, but admitted it wasn't "straightforward".
But straightforward or not a fourth successive win would've gone a long way today - and, though Piastri was keen post-race to emphasise the McLaren maybe wasn't the quickest car out there, that doesn't mean it couldn't have beaten the RB21 with clean air. - Valentin Khorounzhiy
Winner: Max Verstappen
On an emotional level, this was the lesser of Verstappen's two victories so far this season.
But this one might just take top billing in the satisfaction stakes considering just how unexpected it was - and how convincing the edge ended up being.
From the stunning "well, I'm just going to try to send it around the outside" move (Verstappen's words) to pinch the lead, to the way he legitimately dropped the pursuing McLarens thereafter, this was the sort of complete control we've not really seen from Verstappen and Red Bull since the start of 2024.
That's got to be seen as a bit of a warning to McLaren. - Jack Cozens
Winner: Lando Norris
Norris conceded there was "clearly just not the pace to win today", but will no doubt take some satisfaction from beating his team-mate in a straight shootout.
Well, straight-ish, anyway, as there was a huge tyre offset between Norris and Piastri. But Norris still had to get his elbows out and prise second from the other McLaren on track, fair and square.
And the nature of the pass was as significant as the statement it sent. After a number of weekends where the (small) things Norris has done wrong have been scrutinised, here it's what he did right that's in the spotlight. That was an important marker to lay down against his championship-leading team-mate. - JC
Loser: McLaren
This wasn't another lost win like Suzuka where imperfections cost McLaren. This was more straightforward: once Verstappen had bossed the chicane at the start, the Red Bull was just plain faster.
McLaren team principal Andrea Stella admitted to being "a little surprised" by just how fast the RB21 was, congratulating Verstappen and Red Bull for the turn of pace they showed.
But there's no doubt that "surprise" will have been startling. If evidence of that was needed, Norris offered it on the team radio after the race.
"Let's keep pushing, guys," he said. "I know it's been a lovely start [to the season], but [we] weren't quick enough to win it today." - JC
Loser: Charles Leclerc
Leclerc sounds almost resigned to his fate now. What should have been a title challenge has quickly turned into another salvage job for Ferrari - and a difficult one too.
He did his best to recover from a disastrous qualifying session, but got screwed by the way the two safety car periods intersected with his two-stop tyre strategy.
Leclerc did his best to defend position at the end but was effectively a sitting duck on those worn hard tyres against Albon's Williams.
Sixth is a respectable result considering how bad Ferrari's weekend was going before the race started, but Leclerc stood on the podium here last year and now sits 85 points adrift of championship leader Piastri with little sign of a big improvement to come. - Ben Anderson
Winner: Lewis Hamilton
Where Leclerc lost out, Hamilton gained by starting on the alternative (hard) tyre and then taking the benefit of cheap pitstops during the safety car periods.
Hamilton's mood is always prone to swings based on how well the immediate session has panned out, so he was naturally delighted to put on a decent show and achieve a strong result in front of a local crowd that clearly energised him.
Fourth is probably the best realistic finish he and Ferrari could have got from this race anyway, and Hamilton was the one who achieved that result, so it's difficult to see what more he could have done in this race - even if he was a bit lucky in the process. - BA
Loser: Mercedes
"The fact is, every team has a disastrous race weekend at some point. This is our first one of the season."
George Russell's concern over Mercedes' performance at Imola was hardly eased by a seventh-place finish - which did snap his streak of finishing in the top five in every race prior in 2025.
But it wasn't circumstantial. The Mercedes looked a seventh-place car, if that, as evidenced by Russell's first stint being so bad he seemingly scared a bunch of rival teams into an early stop - and as also evidenced by Russell just narrowly hanging on to seventh over Carlos Sainz, who was on the same compound and age of tyre.
Kimi Antonelli's race pace, after an early opportunistic overtake on Hamilton that should've counted for more, was even more non-existent even before his W16 broke down (you could potentially use the adjective 'mercifully' there).
"We had absolutely zero pace, clearly a trend when it's hot - the track was really hot. When it's hot, we're nowhere, when it's cold, we're quick," Russell summed up. - VK
Winner: Williams
The no-longer-developed Williams FW47 continues to rake in the points relative to its midfield rivals - the benefit of a line-up made up of two high-level experienced operators, but also the benefit of what is clearly a very handy design.
There was more on the table with slightly better VSC/SC luck, either for Alex Albon or for Sainz - deeply and loudly frustrated with the early stop and the final outcome for his race - though probably not for both.
In any case, 14 points when every team behind it combined scored two is a proper yield - and reflective of a squad that's increasingly making it a habit of bothering the 'stragglers' from that Mercedes/Red Bull/Ferrari group rather than needing to worry itself about its actual nominal rivals. - VK
Loser: Aston Martin
A disheartened Fernando Alonso reckoned after the race that, without the VSC, Aston was one for a sixth-and-seventh finish and that "in 100 scenarios of the race, 99 were OK for us to score strong points for the team".
This is probably a charitable reading of the race - team-mate Lance Stroll felt he would've finished "ninth or something" without the VSC, as that early stop, which Aston Martin committed to with both cars, seemed to be a less-than-optimal strategy even without interruptions.
But it was still going to score something - and instead had its best-perfomance weekend of the year yield no points.
The performance of the upgraded AMR25 should be a boon, but there's no guarantee it'll be this good at all the upcoming tracks. - VK
Winner: Isack Hadjar
Behind runaway winner Verstappen, who was the next-best finisher among the Red Bull pool of drivers?
For the fourth time in seven races it was F1 rookie Hadjar.
OK, Yuki Tsunoda's "stupid" Q1 crash and Liam Lawson getting done by the timing of Franco Colapinto's Q1 crash played a role - but it's the consistency of Hadjar's execution in qualifying and the races, despite his relative lack of experience, that continues to impress.
His start wasn't totally clean, but it's hard to fault much else. He was always in the mix for points and hanging on well against faster cars. - BA
Loser: Haas
There was a brief moment where it looked as though something might happen for Haas at Imola.
Admittedly, the advantageous position Ollie Bearman found himself in was a result of his team-mate Esteban Ocon's virtual safety car-inducing stoppage, the result of an "air consumption issue". But that served to elevate Bearman to a position that he felt his pace at Imola merited.
It was short-lived. A loose wheel at his VSC pitstop required him to stop again and, all of a sudden, both Haas cars were at the bottom of the timing tower.
Team principal Ayao Komatsu summed it up as succinctly as we could've wished for. "The positive is that the car had pace to score points," he said. "It's another missed opportunity though." - JC
Loser: Pierre Gasly
Though clearly Alpine's benchmark this season, Pierre Gasly has now converted four top-10 starts into just one top-10 finish, which is far from ideal for himself and the team.
His race was doomed by the VSC coming out after he had committed to the two-stop, but it had been compromised before that with his off while fighting against Leclerc.
Gasly admitted he is "not happy with how I handled that" - and that he "probably" damaged the floor with his trip through the gravel in addition to the time loss.
Monaco is a must-use opportunity for him and Alpine to finally make use of some of these good qualifying results. - VK
