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Formula 1
Miami GP
F1 Miami GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP1 & Sprint Qualifying
Friday's action from the sixth round of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
F1 action returns with its first trip of the year Stateside for the Miami GP.
It is the second sprint race format of the season, following on from the Chinese GP, which means teams and drivers will have just one 60-minute practice session to get up to speed before the revised sprint race schedule kicks in – starting with sprint race qualifying on Friday afternoon.
Practice starts at 5:30pm BST (12:30pm local time) followed by sprint race qualifying at 9:30pm BST (4:30pm local time).
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Sainz returns to the top but only for a few seconds as Russell posts a 1m28.910s to set the fastest time in the session.
Verstappen gets pushed wide at Turn 7 and is warned about gusts of winds around that corner over team radio. It was enough for the Dutch driver to back out of that lap.
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No such trouble for Gasly on the softs as he goes fastest with a 1m29.175s.
Albon, on softs, catches a slide and a snap at Turn 4 but on his next lap his Williams also gets loose into Turn 1 and reports his car rear locking.
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Bottas posts a 1m29.980s to go seventh, while Zhou reports no grip on his softs as he doesn't improve on his previous best.
Zhou and Bottas have also ventured out on the softs. Here come the qualifying simulations.
Hamilton doesn't get his Mercedes turned in enough for Turn 14 so takes to the chicane run-off rather than wrestling the car and risking greater danger.
With 15 minutes to go in FP1, we've got our first sighting of the soft tyres. Albon's chosen the C4 compound for his next run.
Most drivers are still focused on long runs and nobody has touched the softs yet. Last year the softs weren't a useful option as a race tyre so we'd expect the red-walled tyre will only be used for qualifying.
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On his next push lap Norris responds to go second with a 1m29.495s - just 0.164s off Sainz. They are gaining, slowly but surely.
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Piastri betters his team-mate's effort with a 1m29.692s to go third and three-tenths off Sainz.
Norris moves the upgraded McLaren up to fifth, just four-tenths off Sainz's leading effort.
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"I'm front locking too quickly at the peak," Verstappen says when he locks up into Turn 17 again. Just before that the Dutch driver's Red Bull was getting out of shape through the Turn 14-15 chicane. Not a smooth session for the world champion so far.
Sainz improves on his overall best by a tiny fraction - 0.015s to be precise - to extend his advantage at the top of the times.
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Sainz goes quickest with a 1m29.346s on the hards.
Both Hamilton and Tsunoda have wide moments at Turn 17, but in each incident they appear to have been put off by a slow car on the inside of the corner entry. That'll be a big area to watch out for in qualifying.
While Ferrari's special livery looks like a dud, RB's flourish of yellow, pink and purple across the nose and sidepods looks very pretty.
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While Hamilton, on mediums, goes second fastest and 0.127s off Perez's leading lap time.
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Sainz in the sole remaining Ferrari goes third fastest with a 1m29.936s set on the hards.
Verstappen locks up into Turn 17 and takes to the plentiful run-off area to avoid any further drama.
So far the majority of drivers are sticking to the hard tyres - with only Perez, Russell, Hamilton, Verstappen and Zhou trying out the mediums - while nobody has touched the softs yet.
Norris is also back on track but is still voicing concerns over heavy steering. That red flag came at a good time for him though, as it gave McLaren free time to fix his car.
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Perez, on mediums, goes fastest with a 1m29.632s - finding 1.4s on Verstappen's previous best.
To no surprise plenty of drivers head out early to make up for lost time.
Lights green
The good news for everyone, apart from Leclerc, is practice is getting under way once again, so they've only lost around 10 minutes of the session.
This is the other danger of a sprint race weekend at a street track. The likelihood of red flags and disruption in practice is higher, so having just one practice session means a lot of teams will go into the competitive sessions blind. Baku was the last street track to host a sprint race.
The small and temporary silver lining for Leclerc is he's also paused the session for everyone else, as the time ticks down under a red flag in practice.
So, Leclerc will go into sprint race qualifying with three-and-a-half laps to his name from practice. How costly could that prove?
Replays show Leclerc climbed over the Turn 16 kerbs and when he asked for the power his Ferrari kicked out and went into a spin. He was so lucky to miss the walls but that is his session over already.
Red flag
Ah, this is awkward. Leclerc tries to spin his Ferrari around but there isn't enough room between the walls and he's effectively parked sideways and blocking most of the track. The red flag has come out. Leclerc is stuck.
Yellow flag
Leclerc is facing the wrong way under the flyover at Turn 16 which has brought out the yellow flags. He's clearly had a spin and is trying to get his Ferrari turned around.
The dominant Red Bulls are next around, with Verstappen going top with a 1m31.071s while Perez slots into third, two-tenths of a second back.
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Hamilton posts the first representative lap of the session, a 1m31.127s, to go top on the mediums.
Everyone has been on track so far bar the pair of Williams drivers. Home favourite Sargeant is in his cockpit and raring to go though.
On his out-lap, Norris reports "something doesn't feel right" with his McLaren's steering, stating that it is "really easy to turn left but really hard to turn right". He duly returns to the pits.
As expected, plenty of early takers in this sole practice. Magnussen leads the way in his Haas followed by Alpine's Ocon and both McLarens.
Lights green
Here we go! FP1 is under way!
Along with upgrades across pitlane, there are also a few special liveries on show: Ferrari has slashes of baby blue on top of its traditional red as part of a tribute to the manufacturer's heritage of racing in the USA. RB also has a special splash of colour.
By: Autosport Staff
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