Last Updated:
Emma Raducanu, in a recent interaction with Sky Sports, put her money on Max Verstappen for the 2025 championship despite McLaren’s brilliant form at the moment.
Lewis Hamilton signs autographs as he walks through the F1 paddock at the Australian Formula One Grand Prix (Picture credit: AP)
British tennis star Emma Raducanu has said that Max Verstappen will again become the world champion by the end of the 2025 season, ignoring her compatriot Lewis Hamilton, who would be vying for a record eighth world championship this season.
Raducanu, in a recent interaction with Sky Sports, put her money on Verstappen for the 2025 championship despite McLaren’s brilliant form at the moment.
Verstappen has been winning the championship for the past four years, and according to Raducanu, the former might make it five in a row.
“I’m Emma Raducanu and these are my Formula 1 predictions. I think Max Verstappen will win,” Raducanu said.
Raducanu resorted to McLaren’s support in the Constructors’ Championship.
“I want to say, McLaren. I want them to win, yeah,” the British tennis star said.
McLaren were the strongest side in the Free Practice sessions on Friday, with Lando Norris topping the FP1 session and Oscar Piastri finishing in P4.
Compared to them, Raducanu’s predicted championship winner, Verstappen, managed P5 in FP1 and P7 in FP2.
Meanwhile, McLaren’s hometown hero Piastri led a super-competitive final practice session on Saturday, March 15, for Sunday’s Formula 1 Aussie GP with him just 39 one-thousandths of a second ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.
The Melbourne-born Piastri traded top times with Russell and Verstappen, who was third-fastest. The latter was the benchmark for the first 22 minutes of the session.
Ferrari finished down the order, with second practice’s top man Charles Leclerc fourth, almost three-tenths off the pace, while his teammate Hamilton was eighth.
Russell’s Mercedes teammate Andrea Kimi Antonelli closed out the top five, ahead of both Williams drivers, who again showed brilliant pace, with defending Aussie GP champion Carlos Sainz sixth ahead of his teammate Alex Albon.
Haas rookie Oliver Bearman halted final practice just four minutes into the session, with the Brit bringing out the red flags after he lost control of the car at turn 11 and buried the car in the gravel.
Red Bull’s recruit Liam Lawson couldn’t set a lap either, with the side stating that the problem on his car was a “power unit or power unit system problem on the air side.”
