Miami GP: Charles Leclerc goes fastest in first practice session

Charles Leclerc topped the timesheets in FP1 for Ferrari as the Miami Grand Prix weekend got underway in earnest on Friday.

The Ferrari ace is looking to bounce back this weekend after only finishing 6th in Imola last time out and started off his weekend at a brand new circuit in fine fashion, going fastest by 7 hundredths of a second to George Russell in the Mercedes.

Indeed, it’s intriguing to see the Merc as high as second and it certainly looked a little more settled compared to recent races in terms of its porpoising – though obviously the Silver Arrows know it is still early days in the weekend to be getting hopes up.

In 3rd and 4th were the Red Bull pair of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, with the former suffering a few cooling issues early in the session thanks to the roasting 34C air temperature in Florida on Friday afternoon.

Pierre Gasly was 5th in the AlphaTauri ahead of Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari, whilst Alex Albon put in a fine lap to get his Williams into 7th place – ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Kevin Magnussen and the two McLaren cars.

Elsewhere in the session, Valtteri Bottas caused a brief red flag as he found the wall in his Alfa Romeo, which ended his FP1 early, whilst Esteban Ocon – in a similar incident to the one in Imola – nearly came together with George Russell’s Mercedes in the pitlane as he exited his Alpine garage.

Yuki Tsunoda also suffered a spin, meanwhile, as the drivers got their first glimpse of the latest addition to the F1 calendar.

FP1 result: