Imola turns into a baptism of fire for Hamilton as Ferrari debut falters with floor-damage drama
Lewis Hamilton’s first competitive outing in Ferrari red on Italian soil was meant to be a celebration—a symbolic passing of the torch from Maranello legends of old to the seven-time champion determined to add an eighth crown. Instead, Saturday morning’s final practice session for the 2025 Imola Grand Prix heaped pressure, not glory, on the storied partnership as Hamilton limped to a muted tenth place, nursing a wounded SF25.
Mid-way through FP3 the crowd heard an unmistakable note of frustration over team radio: “Guys, I’ve got floor damage—I ran wide out of Rivazza.” Moments earlier Hamilton had bounced over the exit kerbs at Turn 18, a momentary lapse that ripped flow-conditioning strakes from the Ferrari’s underside. On a circuit where every thousandth matters and straight-line drag is punished, losing precious downforce is a recipe for pain. Ferrari mechanics swiftly rolled the scarlet car back into the garage for an inspection but, with parc fermé looming, only limited patch-up work was possible before qualifying.
Tyre behaviour compounded the Scuderia’s headache. Overnight Pirelli trimmed minimum pressures in search of a more compliant footprint, yet cooler ambient temperatures left the soft compound in a narrow window. As a consequence, several teams set their quickest laps on the supposedly slower medium rubber and found themselves slower, not faster, when they swapped to reds. Drivers described the softs as “peaky” and “knife-edged,” and the timing screens reflected that unpredictability.
McLaren, however, seemed immune. After dominating both Friday sessions, the papaya duo picked up exactly where they left off. Lando Norris topped the table with a slick 1 minute 14.897 seconds, edging team-mate Oscar Piastri by just a tenth. Their clean balance through Variante Alta and unwavering traction out of Acque Minerali marked them as favourites for pole. Max Verstappen, ever the hunter, slotted his Red Bull into third, a scant 0.181 s from Norris and firmly within striking distance once the gloves come off in Q3.
The real eyebrow-raiser was rookie Kimi Antonelli. In only his sixth Grand Prix weekend, the 18-year-old Italian wrung fourth from the Mercedes, half a second down on the benchmark but comfortably ahead of established names. Charles Leclerc salvaged a measure of pride for Ferrari in fifth, albeit six tenths off the ultimate pace, while Carlos Sainz impressed on his burgeoning Williams adventure to go sixth. The Grove outfit’s upgrade package, focused on diffuser efficiency, appears to have unlocked genuine midfield-leading speed—Sainz and Alex Albon (ninth) book-ended the top ten.
Isack Hadjar continued his quiet rise with seventh for Racing Bulls, and George Russell’s eighth ensured both Mercedes featured at the sharp end. That left Hamilton—nearly nine-tenths adrift of Norris—scratching his head and poring over data. The tifosi, draped in banners that read Benvenuto, Sir Lewis, could scarcely hide their concern. They had expected fireworks; they got floor splinters.
The session, mercifully, ran without the red-flag theatrics that twice halted Friday running. Even so, Liam Lawson injected a pulse of drama as he pirouetted his Racing Bulls machine through Tamburello. Sliding backwards in a haze of tyre smoke, the New Zealander miraculously avoided the barriers but flat-spotted all four tyres beyond recovery, consigning himself to the pits for the remainder.
Further back, veterans Fernando Alonso (11th) and Nico Hülkenberg (19th) found themselves mired in traffic and balance gremlins, while young guns Gabriel Bortoleto and Franco Colapinto wrestled with a stubborn Kick Sauber and Alpine respectively. Esteban Ocon propped up the order in the second Haas, a full 1.7 s off the benchmark, after reporting a “long brake pedal” that sapped confidence into Rivazza.
All eyes now turn to qualifying. Ferrari engineers face a race against the clock to verify that Hamilton’s floor repairs have not tipped the car out of its already-narrow operating window. With McLaren and Red Bull trading purple sectors and Mercedes lurking, the margin for error is negligible. Should the floor damage force Hamilton into a heavier-downforce configuration, he may find overtaking on Imola’s serpentine layout an arduous task come Sunday.
For the moment, the fairy-tale script lies crumpled. Hamilton’s legend thrives on adversity, but if he is to reward the sea of red in the grandstands with a podium—or even simply salvage a solid grid slot—he will need to summon every ounce of resilience. Imola has long been a venue of triumph and tragedy for Ferrari; after FP3, Lewis Hamilton knows both possibilities remain firmly in play.
