Formula 1

Russell leads Mercedes 1-2 with late Miami GP FP1 improvements

by Josh Suttill
2 min read

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George Russell led a Mercedes one-two in the opening Formula 1 practice session at the Miami Grand Prix as Nico Hulkenberg caused a red flag when he crashed his Haas at Turn 3.


Key moments:

> Russell and Hamilton lead with late laps

> Leclerc third ahead of Verstappen

> Perez only 11th

> Hulkenberg crashes at Turn 3


Around 35 minutes into FP1, Hulkenberg made it through the opening corner normally but ran wide at Turn 2 and entered Turn 3 off-line, losing control of his VF-23 and ending up backwards against the Turn 3 barriers.

That ended Hulkenberg’s session while he was second in the order behind championship leader Max Verstappen, and brought out the sole red flag of the session.

Verstappen improved when the session resumed but he was usurped by the Mercedes drivers and the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

Russell ended up fastest on a 1m30.125s which was 0.220 seconds faster than team-mate Lewis Hamilton and a further tenth faster than Leclerc, who also set a late flying lap.

F1 Grand Prix Of Miami Practice

Verstappen set his fastest effort earlier in the session and ended up over four tenths adrift of Russell. His Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez’s quickest time was a second slower than Verstappen’s and he ended up outside the top 10 in 11th place.

Carlos Sainz made it two Ferraris in the top five ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and the Aston Martin drivers Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll.

Hulkenberg’s best pre-crash time was still good enough for ninth ahead of the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who completed the top 10.

Perez was 11th ahead of the lead McLaren of Oscar Piastri and the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen.

Practice 1 Results

Pos Name Car Best Time Gap Leader
1 George Russell Mercedes 1m30.125s
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1m30.337s +0.212s
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1m30.449s +0.324s
4 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1m30.549s +0.424s
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1m30.724s +0.599s
6 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Renault 1m31.104s +0.979s
7 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Mercedes 1m31.231s +1.106s
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 1m31.337s +1.212s
9 Nico Hülkenberg Haas-Ferrari 1m31.392s +1.267s
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 1m31.542s +1.417s
11 Sergio Pérez Red Bull 1m31.566s +1.441s
12 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes 1m31.81s +1.685s
13 Kevin Magnussen Haas-Ferrari 1m31.853s +1.728s
14 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1m31.902s +1.777s
15 Alex Albon Williams-Mercedes 1m31.903s +1.778s
16 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1m31.997s +1.872s
17 Guanyu Zhou Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1m32.134s +2.009s
18 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT 1m32.169s +2.044s
19 Logan Sargeant Williams-Mercedes 1m32.619s +2.494s
20 Nyck de Vries AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT 1m34.637s +4.512s
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