Leclerc tops extended practice in Miami as Mercedes struggle with power unit troubles

Charles Leclerc topped the sole 90-minute practice session in Miami, with Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri completing the top three.

Credit: Formula One

After a gruelling wait, Formula One finally returns with the Miami Grand Prix after a five-week break following the cancellations of the Bahrain and Jeddah rounds. 

Plenty of exciting news kept us afloat during the hiatus, including much sought after tweaks being introduced to the new technical regulations. Coming back with a sprint weekend, it was decided to extend the sole practice session to 90 minutes, giving the teams a chance to get up to speed with how the amendments played out on track.

As it Happened

The track was immediately a buzz of activity as the green light signalled the start of the session, all the teams barring Aston Martin eager to test their new upgrades brought to Miami.

Mercedes and Aston Martin remained in the garage, the championship leaders having fewer upgrades to test, hence the slower start to their Friday afternoon. The Ferrari pair topped the timesheets, led by Lewis Hamilton, who were soon pipped by Lando Norris and Max Verstappen taking the top two spots.

Carlos Sainz then jumped up to third, though the Williams car still struggled with being overweight. Norris’ first benchmark was a 1:30.688, which he quickly trimmed down to a 1:30.335 on his next run.

Meanwhile, Red Bull took the circuit painted with flow-vis, collecting as much data as possible with their upgraded components — particularly the front-wing and brake duct, as well as the much talked about “macarena” rear-wing first seen on the Ferrari during pre-season testing all hitting the track.

The session was not without lockups, Hamilton going wide at Turn 1 and Kimi Antonelli having a moment at Turn 14. As the clock ticked closer to the usual one hour duration of practice sessions, Aston Martin were finally able to send Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll out to collect crucial running, after a power issue in the garage stalled their start.

Antonelli then set a 1:30.079, besting Norris’ lap time earlier in the session, while Charles Leclerc joined the young Italian in the top two as well. His teammate George Russell was having a trickier session, facing turbo issues and sliding over the track while stuck in eighth. 

Another driver struggling while his teammate topped the sheets was Oscar Piastri, the Australian only managing a lap time good enough for sixth while Norris was in second on the same compound.

Leclerc then set the quickest lap time of the session, the first to venture into the 1:29s with a 1:29.855. In a Ferrari carrying a host of different upgrades, the most of the entire field, this was an encouraging sign for the Scuderia, as Hamilton slotted into third too. 

It was a different story at Red Bull, Verstappen complaining of “horrendous” down shifts and up shifts, Isack Hadjar also echoing the sentiment later in the session.

Several instances of traffic on track also caught out drivers, Antonelli finding a car weaving ahead of him and Cadillac’s Sergio Pérez quipping over the radio to his engineer: “Tell Stroll to look at his mirrors.”

With half an hour to go, the top three remained Leclerc, Antonelli and Hamilton. The drivers with the most number of laps completed were Liam Lawson with 28, the Red Bull pair with 26 each and Leclerc with 25 laps on board — 30 minutes still remaining in this extended session.

Another lockup at Turn 1 came from Arvid Lindblad in the Racing Bulls, the rookie left wondering whether it was an issue with his brake temperatures. Meanwhile, Piastri’s afternoon continued to go downhill as he experienced smoke in his cockpit, coming from the brakes. Meanwhile, Sainz reported trouble with his turbo — carrying the same power unit as Russell who’d complained of the same. 

With under 10 minutes to go, Leclerc held on to the top spot but Verstappen had now jumped back up to second, Hamilton in third, all three drivers setting their lap times on the soft compound. 

Piastri was soon back on track after his recovery to the pits for damage repair, going into third, as Antonelli appeared to be out of the car and done with the session with four minutes still remaining. The Italian teenager was supposedly also nursing power unit issues that the team felt couldn’t be sorted during the session, leading to Antonelli’s practice being cut slightly short.

As the chequered flag fell on the extended session, Leclerc, Verstappen and Piastri were the top three, as Hamilton, Antonelli, Russell, Norris, Pierre Gasly, Hadjar and Sainz completed the top 10.

Looking Ahead

The sprint qualifying is up next later today, with Mercedes hoping to sort out their power unit gremlins soon before the session. Meanwhile, Ferrari looks comfortable for now, and while McLaren and Red Bull have their own issues to attend to, they seem to be in the mix as well.

Sprint qualifying is set to start at 20:00 GMT, setting the grid for the Miami sprint race on Saturday.