Charles Leclerc leads Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri during Miami practice as Mercedes hit trouble
Charles Leclerc completed the timesheets as the 2026 F1 season summarized with Free Practice 1 for the Miami Grand Prix on Friday – the Ferrari driver main the best way from Red Bull rival Max Verstappen and McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, whereas Mercedes confronted early points.
Leclerc labored his means right down to a benchmark lap of 1m 29.310s in sometimes scorching and humid situations on the Miami International Autodrome, the place drivers have been again in motion after an prolonged five-week April break.
In recognition of that hole, the recently announced rule refinements and the truth that the Miami weekend is working to the Sprint format, which options just one practice session, FP1 was prolonged from the same old 60 minutes to 90.
This gave the 11 groups and 22 drivers slightly bit extra time to get again right into a rhythm, perceive the rule tweaks and study a bunch of upgrades utilized to their vehicles – Aston Martin being the one squad to not declare any aerodynamic developments this weekend.
Unsurprisingly, when the session received beneath means at 1200 native time, loads of these drivers have been fast to go away the pit lane and get their first laps in across the 5,412-kilometer Florida venue, with most beginning on the toughest tire compound for some exploratory excursions.
By the 15-minute mark, everybody other than Aston Martin pair Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had appeared, with Norris holding P1 within the mid-1m30s bracket, adopted by the Red Bull of Verstappen and the Ferraris of Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton.
Aston Martin subsequently confirmed an influence problem of their storage, whereas there have been early considerations for Pierre Gasly (who reported a “very strange smell” aboard his Alpine) and George Russell (whose turbo was “making a lot of noises… a bit like a steam train”).
Stroll and Alonso have been finally despatched out simply over 20 minutes into the session, with Honda chiefs little question watching on eagerly following the implementation of further countermeasures aimed toward lowering engine vibrations and enhancing reliability.
Also gathering solutions to key improvement questions have been Ferrari and Red Bull – the previous revealing an up to date model of their ‘flip-flop’ rear wing early in FP1, and the latter deploying a rotating idea of their very own, as they each push to catch Mercedes.
After half an hour, it was championship chief Antonelli who sat on the high of the occasions, having slotted forward of Leclerc, Lando Norris, Verstappen and Hamilton on a 1m 30.079s, whereas group mate Russell’s difficult begin continued with an enormous double lock-up that flat-spotted each entrance tyres.
Around 20 minutes later, Leclerc triggered one other change on the entrance by clocking at 1m 29.855s, with Hamilton additionally discovering time within the sister Ferrari to go third, simply behind Antonelli – the highest three nonetheless but to swap the exhausting tires for mediums or softs.
Alonso and Stroll have been the primary drivers to tackle the softest rubber, however may solely go 18th and nineteenth respectively, some three seconds off the tempo, whereas the Canadian annoyed each Antonelli and Perez by showing to get of their means on separate laps.
Plenty extra drivers duly switched to softs over the ultimate 20 minutes of the session, resulting in a flurry of non-public greatest and total greatest sector occasions by to the checked flag – Leclerc finally posting the quickest time: a 1m 29.310s.
Leclerc’s enchancment put him nearly three-tenths away from Verstappen, and one other tenth up on Piastri, with Hamilton additionally within the front-running group regardless of encountering a slow-moving Audi within the last minutes and having to again out of a run.
Mercedes skilled additional trouble as the session drew to a detailed, with Antonelli unable to finish a lap on softs as a result of mechanics troubleshooting an influence unit problem – leaving him fifth from Russell, who may solely go sixth with the red-marked tires.
Norris danced out of his comfortable tire run when he approached Alex Albon’s Williams on the last hairpin and ran extensive, that means the reigning World Champion wound up a distant seventh over Gasly, Isack Hadjar and Carlos Sainz.
Franco Colapinto and Albon have been subsequent up in P11 and P12 respectively, from the Haas and Audi machines of Ollie Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon, whereas the Racing Bulls, Cadillac and Aston Martin drivers introduced up the rear.
