2024 Miami Grand Prix – Verstappen Quickest in Free Practice One – The Checkered Flag

Max Verstappen topped Free Practice One in Miami after an early spin from Charles Leclerc, ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz Jr. 

It was an action packed session, with the teams only having a single hour of practice ahead qualifying for the sprint, catch up on all the action if you missed it with our report!

What Happened in the Session?

McLaren F1 Team were the team everyone was watching in the buildup to the session with a vast range of upgrades being brought to Florida. It wasn’t a perfect start though, both Norris and Oscar Piastri reported steering issues early on.

The red flag came out after just ten minutes. Scuderia Ferrari’s Leclerc spun on the exit of Turn 16 leaving him in the middle of the track. The former Alfa Romeo driver attempted to turn his car around, but he wasn’t able to do so leaving the stewards with no choice but to suspend the session temporarily.

Verstappen had the fastest time as the red flag came out, ahead of Lewis Hamilton and Sergio Pérez. Once things got going again, the Dutchman had a bit of a scare during a long run – locking up at the final corner. 

Norris once again come onto the radio to complain about his steering, while Pérez put his RB20 at the top of the times. Hamilton put himself back up into second place with less than 35 minutes to go – the Briton went fastest through sector 1 before losing time with a lockup in the final corner. 

Sainz was the next driver to go top of the timesheets, putting himself almost three tenths ahead of Pérez on the hard compound.

It wasn’t a straight forward session for championship leader, Verstappen. He was on the radio to his race engineer complaining about frequent front locking.

The session ramped up in the final ten minutes, with almost all twenty drivers moving onto the soft tyres. Despite complaining about multiple issues over the course of the session, Verstappen put his Red Bull top of the timesheets even with another front lockup. 

Piastri, who only has half of the McLaren upgrade package, ended up in second ahead of the Ferrari of Sainz. George Russell finished in fourth, but showed some great pace in sector one on his final push lap. 

Lance Stroll and Perez were fifth and sixth respectively, ahead of Hamilton and Yuki Tsunoda in seventh and eighth.

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly rounded out the top ten in their Alpine cars. 

Daniel Ricciardo finished just outside the top ten as he looks for his first points in Florida. Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hülkenberg ended up in twelfth and thirteenth, ahead of Alex Albon, Zhou Guanyu, Norris, Valtteri Bottas, Logan Sargeant, Fernando Alonso and Leclerc.