Championship leader Oscar Piastri set a commanding pace during the only practice session ahead of Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix.
Miami is hosting the second F1 Sprint event of the season – and its second F1 Sprint – meaning the 60-minute session was the sole practice running of the weekend.
Piastri, who has won three grands prix from five this season, posted a time of 1:27.128s once the field switched to Soft tyres during the closing stages of the session.
McLaren team-mate Lando Norris was on a personal best lap – though trending a couple of tenths down on Piastri’s effort – when the session was red-flagged due to an accident for Oliver Bearman.
Bearman lost control of the Haas VF-25 through the right-hander at Turn 12 and spun into the wall, causing only minor damage to the car, but with only four minutes left in the session it prevented any further improvements.
Piastri’s effort left him 0.356s clear of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with World Champion Max Verstappen – who arrived in Miami late following the birth of daughter, Lily – finishing in third place.
Red Bull has introduced a minor floor update onto the RB21 for Verstappen’s car only.
Williams finished with Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon an encouraging fourth and fifth respectively, ahead of Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar.
Mercedes had George Russell seventh and Kimi Antonelli ninth, either side of Red Bull’s Yuki Tsunoda, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso rounding out the top 10.
Norris finished down in 12th place, after being unable to post a time on Softs due to the stoppage, with Lewis Hamilton also caught out by the red flag and winding up down in 13th position.
That also prevented the Alpine drivers from improving on their Medium tyre laps, leaving Pierre Gasly 17th and Jack Doohan 19th.
Discussion about this post