MIAMI GP – Max Verstappen fastest by a tenth in practice ahead of Oscar Piastri
Max Verstappen was fastest in practice for the Miami Grand Prix, the Dutchman set a 28.595 going just over a tenth faster than Oscar Piastri. Verstappen however didn’t look to have it all his own way as he looked to find his feat.
He set his fastest time in the closing moments of the session, to go faster than the McLaren, Verstappen has won the last two races in Miami. The Red Bull driver ran wide three times as he complained of a braking issue. But as he got his laps together he set his fastest time at the end of the session.
Red Bull once again at the centre of the headlines, with the announcement that chief technical officer Adrian Newey is to leave the team early next year, reportedly unhappy with the internal fighting following the allegations of inappropriate behaviour which Christian Horner was cleared off in March.
Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari third just a hundredth behind the McLaren, in the only practice session for this weekend. Sainz was half a hundredth ahead of George Russell with Lance Stroll going fifth. Both McLaren and Mercedes have big upgrades for this weekend, but Piastri only had half the package.
Mercedes hoping that the upgrades deliver a step towards challenging Ferrari and McLaren.
While Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris was only sixteenth nine hundredths off the pace, but he struggled with power-steering issues that meant the steering had a different weight going into left and right-handed corners.
A spokesperson said: “It was (a problem with) asymmetric power steering assistance (that was) not to do with upgrades. We have made some changes during the session to improve it and will fix it after the session.”
Sergio Perez put his Red Bull sixth, the Mexican half a tenth behind his former teammate Lance Stroll with Lewis Hamilton nearly a quarter of a second further behind. But the biggest name missing was Charles Leclerc, the Ferrari driver session ending stranded on track.
Leclerc spun off early on at Turn Seventeen, while he didn’t make contact with the wall he ended up facing the wrong way. After briefly trying a multi-point turn, he had to sit and wait for other cars, and his clutch overheated, thus bringing out the red flag.
Leclerc edged forwards and backwards multiple times but could not rescue the situation and, as his car threatened to overheat, the Monegasque eventually gave in and jumped out of the cockpit – marshals stepping in to remove it from the circuit under the red flag.
Ferrari have a special blue livery during this weekend’s event to celebrate its seventieth year in the US market.
Yuki Tsunoda was eighth fastest the RB half a tenth behind Hamilton and ahead of both the Alpine’s, with Esteban Ocon going a hundredth faster than his teammate Pierre Gasly. Alpine looking to have a good start to the weekend in a season where they haven’t hit the headlines.
Daniel Ricciardo put his RB eleventh he missed out on the top ten by just three thousandths as he went ahead of both Haas’s. Kevin Magnussen going over a tenth faster than teammate Nico Hulkenberg, while Alex Albon survived a moment at Turn Four going eight hundredth behind.
Guanyu Zhou was fifteenth with teammate Valtteri Bottas seventeenth, as the two Sauber’s were split by Lando Norris. Norris surprising off the pace as he got used to the teams upgrades, but his teammate Piastri struggled. Logan Sargeant was eighteenth going into his home race, the Williams driver a tenth and a quarter faster than Fernando Alonso.