Mercedes’s Friday performance (1st and 4th best times) gives the team renewed hope. Hamilton praises Miami’s “Super Bowl-like” atmosphere.
MIAMI, Florida—Even the best drivers have issues adapting to a new circuit, but not Mercedes’s George Russell. He achieved the fastest time of the day on Friday, clocking a 1: 29:938, in preparation for Sunday’s maiden Miami Grand Prix at the Hard Rock International Circuit. Charles Leclerc, who won the morning session, placed second in his Ferrari, while Red Bull’s Sergio Perez took third.
Following adjustments made by Mercedes in response to early-season problems, Friday’s performance was the best of the year, with Russell taking the best time and Lewis Hamilton finishing fourth overall.
But Mercedes’s success was not matched by other teams whose drivers spun out largely because it was unfamiliar terrain.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr.spun at turn 14, smashing his front and left side into the barriers with 42:21 left in the afternoon session. This brought out the red flag for ten minutes. Then, Williams’s Nicholas Latifi pulled off the circuit and set the second of three red flags for the day. This took a few minutes to fix before the green flag resumed the session. And Valtteri Bottas spun at turn seven in the morning session, damaging the front and rear of his car and bringing out a red flag. Even though mechanics fixed the problem, it was too late for Bottas to return for Practice 2.
Defending world champion Max Verstappen faced a different issue. Competitive most of the day. Verstappen began complaining about the steering of his car. He turned back to the pits where mechanics found a hydraulic failure, ending his day.
For the rest of the field, Fernando Alonso took fifth in his Alpine, while sixth went to McLaren’s Lando Norris. Pierre Gasly placed seventh in the Alpha Tauri, and an impressive showing put Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu in eighth. The second Alpine of Esteban Ocon was ninth, and Kevin Magnussen placed the home Haas car in tenth.
Known for its changing weather, Friday was a perfect day, but that could change on the weekend. Saturday’s qualifying session, set for 4p Eastern time, will be televised by ESPN.
