Russell works past steering issues to top FP1, Hamilton in P2

Perhaps surprisingly, it was George Russell who topped the first session in Miami, despite missing around half the session due to steering issues. He was followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton. Both Mercedes drivers sat in the bottom three places as the session drew to a close. The top three were rounded out by Charles Leclerc.

Mercedes bring the pace late

It was fast laps all around to conclude the first practice session. Although as seems to be the common place nowadays, it was Max Verstappen that stormed to an eight-tenth lead over the rest of the field, over half-a-second to his teammate.

While the rest of the grid eventually caught up, it was the Mercedes’ of Hamilton and Russell that shocked everyone. Russell topped the session despite missing time earlier in the session. While Hamilton moved up from P18 on his final lap.

Perhaps the surprise of the session would be the Alpines finishing in P6 and P8 at the chequered flag, recovering nicely from an off weekend in Baku.

Hulkenberg brings out the red flag

Nico Hulkenberg brought out the first red flag of the weekend just past the half-hour mark as he lost his Haas at turn three and found the wall. The Haas had been running well to that point, sitting in second behind Verstappen after an initial soft tyre lap. His teammate Kevin Magnussen sat in fourth as Perez rounded off the top three at the time of the incident.

Verstappen quick from the get go

Verstappen was quick from the get go, leading by over a half a second for most of the first 20 minutes of the session; despite being on the hard tyres, he was borderline untouchable.

Russell reported vibration issues on his Mercedes early, which forced him to dive back into the pits during his first run. Limiting some of his running.

Nyck De Vries hasn’t quite left the troubles of Baku in Azerbaijan, as he spun in the tight part of the track, and although kept it out of the wall it ended up with him being investigated for dangerous driving as he spun his car back round. Alex Albon, however was able to pull off a wonder save and stop his Williams from spinning around with an impressive drift.