Championship leader Charles Leclerc overtook George Russell’s Mercedes to determine the fastest time in the first practice of the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.
The Ferrari driver used a set of Pirelli soft tires to take first place, just 0.071 seconds behind Russell, whose Mercedes includes a range of improvements, including a new low-pressure rear fender, a revised front fender and a beam fender.
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Red Bull’s Verstappen, who has won two of four races this season, briefly topped the charts, but jumped the wall (below) onto the green track and spent much of the session in the garage. He eventually finished third, 0.179 seconds behind.
Verstappen teammate Sergio Perez was fourth, ahead of Pierre Gasley, AlphaTauri’s leader – who is on his third internal combustion engine (with an additional penalty penalty) – as Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz failed to get time for a soft tire on board. took a break with the kind assistance of a large lock in a bend 1.
1 Charles Leclerc LEC Ferrari 1: 31.098 2 George Russell RUS Mercedes + 0.071s 3 Max Verstappen VER Red Bull Racing + 0.179s 4 Sergio Perez PER Red Bull Racing + 0.203s 5 Pierre Gasly GAS AlphaTauri + 0.400s
Alex Albon of Williams was a very impressive seventh place with about one tenth of a second from Lewis Hamilton, who had to stop running with soft tires when he was interrupted by traffic.
Kevin Magnussen (P9) and Daniel Ricciardo, who had a close encounter when the latter left the pit lane at the same time as the Haas Magnussen driver was on a hot lap, finished in the top 10.
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2022 Miami GP FP1: A workbench brushes the wall of the Miami International Speedway
Miami’s 5,412 km of 19-turn street track provided a fun session, with several drivers caught – most notably Valteri Botas, who hit the barriers first in the back at turn 7 to pull out the red flags.
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Lando Norris was 11th, a small part of his McLaren teammate Ricciardo, and Fernando Alonso was the leading climber at 12th. Zhou Guanyu’s second Alfa Romeo was 13th, ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll’s other Aston Martin.
Alfa Romeo’s Bottas finished 17th and Yuki Tsunoda – who trimmed the wall but continued – 18th for AlphaTauri, while Haas ‘Mick Schumacher and Williams’ Nicolas Latifi maintained the charts.
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