FP1: Piastri tops sole practice in Miami as Bearman's endures late crash
Although Mercedes driver George Russell dominated the opening stages of the sole practice session at the Miami Grand Prix, but championship leader Oscar Piastri flew to the top of the leaderboard with his McLaren MCL39. F1Technical's senior writer Balazs Szabo reports on the session that was brought to a premature end due to a late crash from Haas racer Oliver Bearman.
With the Miami Grand Prix featuring a spring format, drivers had a busy session to complete in the sole one-hour practice. The majority of the field elected to run Pirelli's mediums in the opening stages of the session, with only the Racing Bulls duo Isack Hajdar and Liam Lawson opting for the white-walled tyres.
Mercedes driver George Russell led the field after the first runs, showing impressive performance across all three sectors. His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli had a quiet start to his session, but the Italian stepped up his game to complete a Mercedes one-two after the first half of the practice.
However, a host of drivers missed out on representative soft-tyre laps, after Haas driver Oliver Bearman lost control of his car exiting Turn 11 and spun around into the Turn 12 wall with five minutes remaining, bringing out the red flags.
Championship leader Oscar Piastri charged to the top of the timing screen as the chequered flag approached, producing a 1m 27.128s. Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was also able to complete his soft-tyre run, and finished second, ahead of reigning champion Max Verstappen and the Williams pair Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.
Hadjar’s bright pink Racing Bulls car rounded out the top six, while Russell finished down in P7, albeit he was unable to complete a push lap on the softs due to Bearman’s shunt.
Yuki Tsunoda took eighth, ahead of Antonelli, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso completed the top-10 places.
Lando Norris looked strong on the mediums, but he also missed out on a lap on the softs due to the red flag, ending up 12th, ahead of VCARB driver Liam Lawson.
Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton appeared to be fairly comfortable in his SF25, but he found himself down in 13th as the chequered flag fell, having also been forced to abort his push lap on the red-banded tyres.
The Briton was followed by Kick Sauber racers Nico Hulkenberg and Gabriel Bortoleto, and the sidelined Bearman.
On the back of their strong showings in Bahrain and Jeddah, Pierre Gasly and Jack Doohan put their Alpines 17th and 19th respectively, sandwiching the Haas racer Esteban Ocon, while the second Aston Martin machine driven by Lance Stroll completed the 20-strong pack.
