Leclerc leads Russell in first Miami GP practice

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc write-up Mercedes man George Russell to top spot in the first timed session at the brand-new Miami International Autodrome for the Miami Grand Prix.

The championship leader emerged at the throne of the pack without a flurry of late laps on the soft recipe as the track began to tomfool slightly, having been heated to a scorching 127 degrees F at the start of the hour.

Dropping increasingly than 10 degrees at the end of the session, Leclerc logged a time of 1m31.098s to pip Russell by 0.071s in a promising first test of Mercedes’ car upgrades designed to turn virtually its shocking start to the season.

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez were closely matched at virtually 0.2s off the pace in third and fourth without overcoming cooling issues early in the hour in the ambient 93-degree F conditions.

Leclerc’s session-topping time was early verification of his upgraded Ferrari power unit for the high-speed Miami track, comprising internal combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-H, MGU-K and frazzle system.

Every Ferrari-powered car bar teammate Carlos Sainz — who took his second motor without crashing out of the Australian Grand Prix — likewise took an upgraded engine in FP1 except for Kevin Magnussen, who retained his old exhaust, and Zhou Guanyu, who’s running an old frazzle and MGU-K.

Pierre Gasly likewise unexplored a swag of new Honda engine components on his way to fifth and 0.4s off the pace for AlphaTauri, vibration Sainz by 0.03s. The Spaniard didn’t get a soft-tire run in thanks to a high-speed spin on the red-walled rubber through Turn 4, destroying the recipe and puncturing his right-front tire. His weightier time was set on heavily worn set of mediums instead.

He wasn’t the only suburbanite to test the limits of the new circuit. Verstappen brushed the wall exiting Turn 16 early surpassing spins for Leclerc and Yuki Tsunoda, and Valtteri Bottas crashed out at Turn 7 when he was catapulted backwards into the barriers and triggered a 10-minute red flag.

Alex Albon was an spanking-new seventh for Williams, three-quarters of a second off the pace and 0.1s superiority of Lewis Hamilton in his updated W13.

Kevin Magnussen was ninth for Haas superiority of Daniel Ricciardo, having narrowly avoided a standoff with the Australian late in the session as the McLaren rejoined the track from pit lane having been warned too late of the latter Dane.

Ricciardo was moreover set for a post-session investigation for impeding Mick Schumacher lanugo the long when straight.

Lando Norris followed in 11th and fractionally remoter back, the trio all virtually 1.5s off the pace.

Fernando Alonso was the fastest Alpine, taking 12th, superiority of Zhou Guanyu for Alfa Romeo.

Sebastian Vettel followed superiority of Esteban Ocon and Lance Stroll, with the crashed Bottas ending the hour 17th.

Yuki Tsunoda was 18th superiority of Schumacher, while Nicholas Latifi completed the order for Williams.