Alonso, Leclerc, Sainz: Who lost out the most from Imola’s double Safety Car?

The actual and virtual Safety Cars each made an appearance during the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, and as usual they created a mixture of winners and losers.

Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc were two of the most pained drivers after Sunday’s 63 laps, each feeling the timing of the interruptions had played badly for their strategies. But many other drivers could make similar claims.

Most of them became vulnerable after they made early pit stops to discard the medium rubber they started the race on. Leclerc was one of the earliest to change tyres, pitting on lap 10, while Alonso followed two laps later.

Leclerc had just arrived on the tail of Alonso’s team mate Lance Stroll when Ferrari pulled him in. It’s easy to ‘Monday morning quarterback’ these decisions, but Ferrari’s reasoning is comprehensible in retrospect.

Leclerc hadn’t gained any places since forcing his way past Pierre Gasly on lap three. Moreover, the field ahead of him was compressing due to George Russell’s poor pace in third. Half-a-dozen cars were compressed into little more than three-and-a-half seconds ahead of Leclerc when he pitted. They were ripe for an ‘undercut’.

Among the other drivers who came in early at this point was Carlos Sainz Jnr. Williams sacrificed a strong sixth place in the running order even though Sainz admitted coming in so early felt like a mistake.

Russell and the Aston Martin pair came in too, though their situation was slightly different to their other rivals. As they had exhausted their stock of fresh medium tyres by running them in qualifying, their pace on the rubber at the start of the race tailed off more quickly.

One of the last drivers to pit among this initial group was Oscar Piastri. McLaren sacrificed a strong position – he was second, just 2.7 seconds behind leader Max Verstappen – when they brought him in on lap 14, so they must have had high confidence more drivers behind them were going to come in on that lap. Only Stroll did – and no one else came in for eight laps.

Afterwards Piastri said the team would review whether it got the call right. But in his team mate’s case, their luck was truly rotten. Norris went twice as far as Piastri on his first set of tyres, then came in on lap 28. Seconds after he returned to the track Esteban Ocon came to a stop on the climb to Piratella. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed.

VSC periods are often brief and don’t always give the full field the opportunity to pit (as happened at Interlagos last year). However this one lasted long enough for the whole field to have the chance to come in, and many did, including most of those who had already pitted once. The Aston Martin drivers were the notable exceptions, and they proved easy prey for rivals on fresher tyres after the restart, falling out of the points positions.

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By the time the Safety Car appeared when Andrea Kimi Antonelli retired on lap 46, some teams were running low on fresh rubber. This was especially true for Aston Martin, who chose to fit worn mediums to their cars at this point.

Most of the leaders still had a second set of hards to use, but not Piastri, as his early pit stop came back to haunt him. Leclerc, Russell and Sainz were in the same boat.

However their misfortune was mitigated by one detail: the Safety Car period dragged on for an inordinate amount of time, given that the marshals only had to recover a single stationary car. The upshot was the race did not restart until lap 54, leaving less time for those on fresher rubber to take advantage. Even so Piastri, Leclerc and Russell all lost places over the final sprint to the chequered flag.

The Safety Car periods may not have played into their hands, but their teams’ decisions to make their first pit stop early had already compromised their races. That said, in the cases of Russell and the Aston Martins, their qualifying tactics left them vulnerable on race day, and they paid the price. All three finished at least four places lower than they started.

2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix lap chart

The positions of each driver on every lap. Click name to highlight, right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

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2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix race chart

The gaps between each driver on every lap compared to the leader’s average lap time. Very large gaps omitted. Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and right-click to reset. Toggle drivers using controls below:

2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix lap times

All the lap times by the drivers (in seconds, very slow laps excluded). Scroll to zoom, drag to pan and toggle drivers using the control below:

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2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix fastest laps

Each driver’s fastest lap:

2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix tyre strategies

The tyre strategies for each driver:

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2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix pit stop times

How long each driver’s pit stops took:

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2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix

• Norris “didn’t expect Red Bull to be as quick as they were”
• Alonso, Leclerc, Sainz: Who lost out the most from Imola’s double Safety Car?
• Verstappen explains his stunning first-corner pass on Piastri
• Piastri vows to learn from turn one at Imola: ‘I thought I had it under control’
• Imola was Mercedes’ worst race for years in terms of pace – Russell

Browse all 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix articles