Lewis Hamilton put in a late lap along with George Russell to end up Mercedes 1-2 in FP1 of F1 Miami GP, with Charles Leclerc in third.
As expected, there were moments to start off the FP1 session in F1 Miami GP. AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries was the early spinner and moved in an opposite direction while trying to spin himself in the position but that came under scrutiny from the FIA stewards.
They were looking him for dangerous driving, but cleared him. There were moments for both the Red Bull drivers Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, while Haas’ Kevin Magnussen too had a moment along with Williams’ Alexander Albon.
There was a steering wheel issue for Mercedes’ George Russell who was testing an item but since it was too heavy, they had to change the whole rack. While the lap times started to come through, there was a red flag stoppage for a crash for Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg.
The German went wide and hit the wall at Turn 3 with a new floor fitted. He crashed while running second in the order after a soft tyre run. Post red flag, Albon had another off where he needed to do a 360 to rejoin while Alpine’s Pierre Gasly lost it too.
The FP1 session, though, was topped by Mercedes’ Russell with a 1m30.125s lap as he brought Lewis Hamilton along in second with a 1m30.337s. The two put in late laps to finish 1-2 as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (1m30.449s) ended up third.
He put in a late lap too to get ahead of Red Bull’s Verstappen who dropped to fourth as a result from Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. The Spaniard too had a moment at Turn 1, with Alpine’s Gasly popping in at sixth after his late quick lap to demote Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
The Spaniard was seventh from Lance Stroll, who improved late on to be eighth from Haas’ Hulkenberg whose lap from pre red flag stayed on to be ninth from Alpine’s Esteban Ocon in the Top 10. The late improvements pushed Red Bull’s Perez to 11th.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was 12th from Haas’ Magnussen with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas in 14th, Williams’ Albon 15th, McLaren’s Lando Norris 16th, Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu 17th and AlphsTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda 18th, who also had his moments.
There was one involving a Alpine towards the end of the session where they jostled for track position, with Williams’ Logan Sargeant in 19th also having an off moment. AlphaTauri’s de Vries was 20th, who did his best time on the hard tyre.
Full classification from FP1 in Miami 👀#MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/joHtMk2WcB
— Formula 1 (@F1) May 5, 2023
Here’s new PU elements list: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2023%20Miami%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20New%20PU%20elements%20for%20this%20Competition.pdf
Interesting info from Mercedes on George Russell who was running a test item re his steering wheel. “We are changing the steering rack, yes. He was running a test item and it was too heavy, so reverting to standard spec.” – team said. #F1 #MiamiGP | @MsportXtra
— Darshan Chokhani (@DarshanChokhani) May 5, 2023