F1 Miami GP Live Commentary and Updates – FP3 & Qualifying
Saturday's action from the fifth round of the 2023 Formula 1 season
Live AppleTV Race Audio
Max Verstappen topped Friday practice in Miami, as F1 completes a double-header following last weekend’s Azerbaijan GP where Sergio Perez took both sprint and grand prix race wins.
The weekend returns to its usual format in the US, with two free practice sessions on Friday, FP3 and qualifying on Saturday and the race on Sunday.
FP3 starts at 5.30pm BST on Saturday, with qualifying getting under way at 9pm.
For all that this is only the second F1 race in Miami, bobble-hatters amongst you will of course recall that the Grand Prix of Miami was a fixture on the IMSA schedule in the 1980s into the early '90s. Geoff Brabham was a four-time winner with Nissan - wonder if he's in the paddock this weekend?
Your usual weather update: air temperature is 28.7 °C, with track temps of 47.1 °C. If you're in any doubt about the conditions, humidity is 57%. And there's also a 30% risk of rain to keep teams on their toes...
In that tightly-bunched FP3 midfield pack behind the Red Bulls and Ferraris, headed by the two Alpines, we also had Alfa, Haas, Williams, Mercedes and Aston. A real jumbled pack, with only McLaren and AlphaTauri left on the outside looking in. The question, as ever, is how representative will that be of qualifying?
Especially fascinating in FP3 earlier, and befitting of this season's trend, was the tight midfield fight as fifth-placed Esteban Ocon was just 0.316s ahead of Lance Stroll in 14th. That's more than the gap between Verstappen and Leclerc was! It suggests a superb fight in Q2 is in the offing.
One team that won't want to see a repeat of FP3 is McLaren. It ended up P18 and P19 with Oscar Piastri just ahead of Lando Norris, both over 1.8s off the pace. Can the Papaya cars launch a qualifying recovery?
One significant and perhaps obvious opponent he'll have to face off against is defending race winner Max Verstappen, who was fastest in both yesterday's FP2 and FP3 earlier on. His 1m27.535s lap from FP3 is the fastest of the weekend so far, and clearly under Leclerc's pole lap last year.
Wind the clock back a year to the inaugural Miami GP and it was a front row lockout for Ferrari headed by Charles Leclerc. After his Baku qualifying heroics last weekend, can the Monegasque repeat the feat?
Welcome back! We're 20 minutes away from qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix. Time to get settled into your comfiest armchair and get your predictions in for post-Q3 smugness.
And with that it is time for a quick breather before today's main event: Miami GP qualifying. We'll be back shortly before 9pm BST for all the build-up on the 'how will the grid line up behind polesitter Verstappen' show.
There appears to be three 'classes' in Miami this weekend. Verstappen class, Ferrari/Perez class, then the rest of F1 class. There's a bigger gap between first and second than there is between fifth and 14th!
The strangest fan sign of the year goes to a lady in Miami who held up a sign that read: "Lando I would change my dad to take a picture with you." Please send answers.
Leclerc makes sure the Red Bull domination doesn't last, as he splits the pair once again to take second with a 1m27.941s. Still, some 0.406s off Verstappen. Which is a lot.
Mind you, a penny for the thoughts down at AlphaTauri, with de Vries in 19th and Tsunoda in last place, having just complained about understeer in true Yuki style.
Verstappen chips away at his overall best lap time again, a 1m27.535s, just to remind everyone of his advantage. Going on the practice pace, it is hard to see anyone challenging Verstappen for pole later on.
Bottas goes fifth fastest for Alfa Romeo and Albon slots into sixth place. You won't be able to take your eyes off qualifying with lap times tumbling all the time.
Gasly has quietly gone about putting in an impressive lap to go fourth quickest, with Russell slotting into fifth for Mercedes. This track is ramping up and fast.
Hamilton puts in a 1m28.724s to jump up to fifth, which will give some encouragement to Mercedes. The bigger worry is he is still one second off Verstappen's pace. The Mercedes just lacks pace, by the looks of it.
"Lots of vibrations through the steering wrack at high speeds," Russell reports. That's been a continual problem for both Mercedes drivers this weekend.
Lots of drivers are in the garages undergoing set-up tweaks and Hulkenberg makes the most of the clear track to post a lap good enough for fifth place.
Alonso locks up heavily at the end of the back straight and eats a chunk of his soft tyres in the run-off. Then moments later Hulkenberg avoids his second shunt of the weekend as he catches a slide at Turn 7.
Albon asks for his team to remind him to make the right switch changes on his Williams steering wheel after his Turn 17 diversion. Williams needs to install a sat-nav.
A yellow flag is shown down at Turn 17 as Albon goes off track and rejoins. He did the same thing in practice yesterday, struggling to get his Williams stopped on the long back straight.
