Verstappen sets the pace in practice with a time over one second quicker than last year’s pole position.
World Champion Max Verstappen set the pace on the opening day of practice at the Miami International Autodrome, recording the fastest-ever lap around the 3.36-mile track. The Red Bull driver topped the timesheets after two hours of busy on-track action ahead of Sunday’s race. In hot and sunny conditions, Verstappen set his best time in the afternoon, recording a time of 1m27.930s around the 19-turn venue, which was 1.54 seconds quicker than Charles Leclerc’s pole position time last year.
The action began at 2pm local time when Free Practice 1 got underway and drivers were able to get to grips with the new track surface. It was a busy hour-long session and the first racer to encounter problems was Nyck de Vries who spun his AlphaTauri backwards into the wall at Turn 12. One of the first drivers to switch to the soft tyres was Haas’ Nico Hülkenberg and he leapt to the top of the timesheets. Unfortunately he was responsible for causing the first red flag stoppage of the weekend when he hit the wall exiting Turn 3.
After a short break, the session resumed with 18 minutes to go and among the spectators was American film director Joseph Kosinski. The Top Gun: Maverick director was taking a special interest in practice as research for his eagerly-anticipated Formula 1 movie which will start filming later this year. Right at the end of the session, both Mercedes drivers emerged onto the track on the soft compound Pirelli and George Russell finished in P1, just 0.212 seconds ahead of his team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Red Bull Racing's Max Verstappen (1) ahead of Ferrari's Charles LeClerc (16) at the Miami Grand Prix on Friday May 5, 2023. | Photo: Tyler Tate/T Squared Sports Media
Another brief red flag meant a frantic final few minutes of FP2 and every driver rushed out of the pits to try and improve their lap time on their final run. In the final classification, Verstappen finished quickest ahead of the two Ferraris of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, followed by the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez. It was another good day for Aston Martin as both of their drivers finished in the top ten. Local hero Logan Sargeant was the slowest of the runners in his Williams in FP2 and 19th in the earlier session.
“Today was a good day," said Verstappen post practice. “Initially we were getting used to the track with the new tarmac, it was ramping up a lot throughout the day. It’s still quite slippery off line but on the driving line it’s okay. Most importantly today we had good balance in the car so I feel happy. There are still a few things we want to look at overnight, ideally we want to be faster on every corner, which isn’t always possible. We’ll have to see what the weather will do tomorrow, but overall it’s been a positive day."
The track action continues tomorrow with FP3 at 12.30pm (Eastern) followed by qualifying at 4.00pm (Eastern) local time.