Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Tips – CopyBet
Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Tips – CopyBet
The 2025 Formula 1 world championship season is one-quarter complete and McLaren lead the way in the standings heading into the seventh race of the season at Imola on Sunday, May 18th.
The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix sees the field racing in Europe for the first time this season after events in Australia, Asia, the Middle East and the United States.
McLaren's Oscar Piastri leads the championship by 16 points from his teammate Lando Norris with world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull a further 16 points behind in third place.
The young Australian star has won four of the last five races, with McLaren successful in every event this season except the Japanese Grand Prix that saw a narrow win by Verstappen.
The Dutch driver has won the last three races held at Imola but he was only fourth to Piastri in Miami two weeks ago.
The stage is set for another fascinating showdown between the top teams at the high-speed circuit.
Tip 1: Piastri is the early race favourite for the first time this season heading into Sunday's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
It's no surprise that the Australian ace is top of the market, however, as he already has four wins to his name this year with Lando Norris and Verstappen successful once each.
Piastri now has more career wins than his British teammate despite taking part in 82 fewer races, having timed his arrival with the McLaren team perfectly to coincide with their rapid progress up the grid last season.
Norris appeared to regain some of his confidence with his strong drive in the race in Miami, when he was closing on Piastri over the final laps. He has a solid record at Imola having finished third there in 2021 and again in 2022 in what was his only podium finish of that season.
He was a close runner-up to Verstappen last year, but Piastri also impressed that weekend in his first visit to the track in any category. The Aussie pipped Norris to second place in qualifying but was denied a front-row start after picking up a three-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen in Q1.
Piastri has looked more comfortable in the car than Norris at most tracks this season and he is worth backing to extend his lead in the world championship with another success.
McLaren took one-two-finishes in both the sprint race and the grand prix in Miami, with Norris successful in the shorter race while Piastri won the main event and he looks well set for more glory.
Tip 2: Piastri is leading the way in the championship at the age of 24, but he's a veteran compared to Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli.
The 18-year-old Italian hit the headlines again when taking pole for the spring race in Miami and finishing third in qualifying for the main race. His races didn't go as smoothly and he was sixth for the fourth time this season in the grand prix, but his first F1 podium should be coming soon.
Antonelli splits the Ferrari pair of Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton in the standings and while the famous red cars will always be most popular in Italy, the youngster should get a huge boost from driving in a home race in F1 for the first time.
The McLarens look likely to contest the race win, but Antonelli and teammate George Russell, who has four podium finishes already this season, can challenge Verstappen for third place and the younger driver looks a value bet at 6/1 to finish third.
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Odds correct at time of publication but subject to change. No guarantees of outcomes.
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