Max Verstappen Tops Timesheets In FP1
Max Verstappen put in the fastest time during the first and only free practice session ahead of the Miami Grand Prix. Behind the Red Bull driver were Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz who put in the second and third fastest times, respectively.
What happened during the Miami GP FP1 session?
4 minutes: As the drivers took the track it didn’t take long for Lando Norris to report an issue to the McLaren team. Norris explained, “Something doesn’t feel right. It’s much harder to turn right than it is left. It’s really easy to turn left and really hard to turn right.” The team has brought 10 upgrades to the Miami GP weekend, so they will be using the Free Practice time to fine-tune these changes.
6 minutes: An odd moment from Charles Leclerc as he span out at Turn 16, leaving him stranded in the middle of the track. A brief yellow flag saw the Monegasque driver attempt to turn the Ferrari around, however, as he was suffering with a reported clutch issue this was not possible resulting in a red flag just eight minutes into the session.
16 minutes: Red flag lifts and the cars get back on track. Luckily for McLaren, they were able to use the time to make changes to the steering, which Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri had also reported was “heavy”. However, Norris still claims, “It still doesn’t feel amazing. It still feels it turns right more than left for the time being, but I will continue to see if it changes at all.”
23 minutes: Leclerc’s SF24 was still on the side of the track making it seem highly unlikely that he will be able to get back on track during the rest of the session. The Ferrari driver will now go straight into the Sprint Qualifying later today having had basically no practice time.
26 minutes: Max Verstappen has a moment running wide at Turn 17, but avoids colliding with the barriers.
28 minutes: Lewis Hamilton goes second fastest with a purple sector 1 showing positive results to far for the upgrades Mercedes have brought to the W15.
31 minutes: Carlos Sainz goes fastest on hard compound tires, 0.286s ahead of Sergio Perez.
37 minutes: Verstappen locks up at the end of the backstraight running off the track once again, reporting that he is “front locking” too close to the limit. Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was also reporting issues to the Red Bull team that his DRS was not working.
42 minutes: McLaren releases an update on Norris’ issues, stating, “Lando’s issue is an asymmetric power steering assistance. Not to do with upgrades. We have made some changes during the session to improve it and will fix it after the session.”
50 minutes: As drivers began to try out the soft tires, Alex Albon ran wide at Turn 1 reporting rear locking. However, Pierre Gasly put on soft tires and topped the timesheets, 0.156 seconds clear of Sainz, although this time was quickly knocked off by George Russell.
54 minutes: The troubles for Verstappen continue as he claims his tires have overheated and it is like “driving on eggshells”. The reigning champion is currently running in nineteenth.
58 minutes: Verstappen goes from running in 19th to going fastest with a time of 1:28.595.
Miami GP FP1 Results
1. Max Verstappen
2. Oscar Piastri
3. Carlos Sainz
4. George Russell
5. Lance Stroll
6. Sergio Perez
7. Lewis Hamilton
8. Yuki Tsunoda
9. Esteban Ocon
10. Pierre Gasly
11. Daniel Ricciardo
12. Kevin Magnussen
13. Nico Hulkenberg
14. Alex Albon
15. Zhou Guanyu
16. Lando Norris
17. Valtteri Bottas
18. Logan Sargeant
19. Fernando Alonso
20. Charles Leclerc
