We arrive back at the European leg of the thrilling 2025 season. Ridiculously amazing views, scenic trackside, super-expensive yachts and depressed Ferrari fans, man, this continent has it all, doesn’t it? Home race of the Prancing Horse team and the rookie Kimi Antonelli, who used this opportunity well to invite all his classmates onto the paddock and throw the ULTIMATE FLEX. Remember calling your friends over to show the new gaming console? Now imagine doing that with the fastest racing car with your name on it. Much like Jack Doohan this weekend, some major rumours were circling the paddock, and one such rumour was that this was Christian Horner’s last weekend as Team Principal, and it was looking to be so given Red Bull’s atrocious form on Friday that left Max giving his steering wheel the ‘Jos Verstappen Treatment’ the whole time, punching it in frustration while McLaren seemed mighty as always.

MY GOD, MY GOD, MY GOD!

The new C6 compound of soft tyres made for some fun strategy to creep in even in qualifying. You know the compound is not made for the track when people gamble to do a qualifying lap on mediums rather than on softs. Yuki’s crash in Q1 brought out the first red flag of the session. The next red flag was brought out by… any guesses? Franco Colapinto, of course, starting right where he left the end of last season. In consequence of this, he found himself eliminated in Q2,  and talking about eliminations in Q2, (Ferrari fans may want to skip this section), both Ferraris found themselves knocked out by both Aston Martins on a MEDIUM tyre. Red Bull found its pace as Max pulled off fast sectors right, left and centre, but at the end, it was Oscar Piastri who beat Max to it, gaining his third pole and continuing his mighty run with George Russell sneaking in 3rd.

Expectations were running low with Imola given it’s rather boring recent history but boy, oh boy, were we wrong. The action started from the first lap itself as we got to witness the most magical turn 1 move by Max Verstappen on Oscar Piastri. (Put that move in the digital museum now!) The session was disturbed by two safety cars which left both Aston Martins out of the point with Fernando Alonso finally hitting the realisation that he is the most unluckiest driver ever. (Yeah, we know Alonso, we know!). A one stop race turned into a million stops Sunday as drivers peeled in before and during safety cars which shuffled the grid quite a bit. When the dust settled, it was Max with a dominating win, sealing his Sunday on turn 1 itself, with Lando’s brilliant move on Oscar in the last laps, earning him a P2 ahead of his teammate Oscar Piastri. Ferrari’s recovery justified the ticket spent for TIfosis on Sunday as Lewis recovered to P4 with Leclerc to P6.

We enter very tricky waters as team grow ever closer in qualifying and the upcoming race rests largely on the qualifying with the MOST IMPORTANT SATURDAY OF THE SEASON. McLaren still seem better in race pace but qualifying is anyone’s to claim (expcet Ferrari maybe.) Can Max deny the pole to McLaren’s for the second time in a row? C6 soft tyre compounds and double pitstop open doors to a million different strategy options even on Sunday so join us in this thrilling race weekend on the vintage setting of Monaco by particpating in the Grid Master Monaco GP contest and stand the chance to beat everyone to the top step by choosing your driver and constructor to triumph the iconic ciruit!

As we make our way to the halfway point of the championship, electric racing hits the land of Tokyo, which greeted us with a wet racing weekend. (Always a pleasure) The qualifying had to be cancelled, which meant FP2 order with set the grid for round 8 of the Tokyo E-prix, which didn’t deliver as wild a top order as we expected, with Rowland starting pole. Some brilliant moves came in early as drivers couldn’t wait to step into the attack mode. Vandoorne got to be the luckiest person alive on the planet right now, as neither the Red Flag brought out by Gunther nor the half-spin he had on track could deny him a brilliant win. (If that luck doesn’t get you in the Vishal Mega Mart security team, I don’t know what does.) Round 9 made for some epic action as the track became drier and Rowland, desperate to win, entered a fierce wheel-to-wheel battle with Ticktum at first and Wehrlein in Porsche later. His commitment and determination finally delivered as he came on top in this battle in the mud, winning the E-prix ahead of Wehrlein and Ticktum.

This season didn’t show any promise to be a banger of a season that it has turned into! What started with the prospect of being a domination by Marquez brother has slowly started to bring new faces to the top step of podium and thing only descend into craziness as we go into the British GP. Marquez pair still sit as the safe bet but bigger the risk, bigger the reward! Participate in the Grid Master British GP Contest and make your passion and love for daring pave your way to the top! Join in the thrill and make your reward for this race weekend even sweeter with Grid Master!

Struggling with the same old void now that the race weekend is over? Jump back into this amazing Imola weekend and relive the top moments by tuning-in to the Grid Master Podcast! Latest Episode now live on Youtube!

Watch now: https://www.youtube.com/live/ColDmbffQWE?si=EM1Zq7qdUbrDGhcO

GAREEB RATH SAUBER

Presenting a brand new section of your much-loved newsletter, called DID YOU KNOW? A segment where we take random, interesting, shocking facts, trivia and stories, realising how they painted the motorsport world, how we now see and love!

We wtinessed a major accident this weekend as Yuki Tsunoda had a whole flip-over in the barriers. Luckily he was all right but do you wonder how the safety of drivers is managed over a race weekend? Every circuit is expected to have a health facility in the paddock with a resident doctor. Safety and medical trucks are kept at stand-by in case of incident. In case of a serious injury, every track is equipped with a helipad to airlift the drivers onto the nearest hospital not more than 10 minutes further than the venue.