F1 Miami GP live commentary and updates - free practice
Follow along for live updates from Formula 1's practice session at the Miami Grand Prix
Live Standings
Live Text
That's all from us for now - we'll be back in a couple of hours to build up for sprint qualifying at Miami.
Thanks for joining us, and see you again shortly!
Second in Miami practice: Verstappen looked more comfortable with his upgraded Red Bull
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
FP1 at Miami: complete!
And that's your lot from a 90-minute practice session! Leclerc 0.297s clear of Verstappen, with Piastri, Hamilton, Antonelli, Russell, Norris, Gasly, Hadjar, and Sainz completing the top 10.
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Leclerc rises to a 1m29.310s, getting a nice tow off Norris down the back straight.
Gasly and Hadjar have improved to move ahead of Colapinto, while Norris and Hulkenberg lock up into Turn 1 on their respective laps.
Second orders: Verstappen improves to a 1m29.607s, while Piastri's up to third. The Red Bull does, in Verstappen's hands at least, seem to be much improved at this stage.
Colapinto and Albon are in the top 10 ahead of Hadjar though, so a good effort from them.
Hamilton is up to third, 0.334s off Leclerc and 0.001s off Verstappen after going deep at the final corner.
Norris now spools up for his own lap, but gets traffic in sector two...and sector three, as Norris has to back out to evade Albon. He started with the best first sector, but couldn't make the most of it.
Antonelli has a PU issue, so he's not getting a hot lap in.
It's a 1m30.100s for Russell, who looked a little bit iffy in the low-speed. Verstappen fires in a 1m29.776s to go top, briefly, as Leclerc does a 1m29.443s to vault back to the top of the pile.
Leclerc, Verstappen, and Russell are out on the softs, as are the Haas pair, Hulkenberg, Hadjar, and Gasly.
Let's have some fun, shall we?
"I have some smoke in the cockpit," Piastri reports, explaining that it had a distinct brake-y tinge to it. Meanwhile, Sainz reckoned that his turbo had an odd noise - like Russell earlier in the session.
Bottas had opened his lap earlier and sustained a big lock-up - which perhaps explains the lack of improvement.
Bottas has become the next driver to try a set of soft tyres out, and we expect more to follow as we hit the final 20 minutes of running.
It's a 1m33.278s for the Finn - he didn't really hook that up in the first sector.
Not currently much to report, as everyone's largely stuck to the same set of tyres on which they opened the session - so we've not seen much in the way of challenging for times.
Big lock-up for Lindblad there, as the Racing Bulls driver returns to the circuit after a bit of time in the pitlane.
"Come on man, these downshifts," Hadjar complains, having the same issue as team-mate Verstappen.
Lindblad's also been in and out of the pits thus far with issues, hence his position between the two Cadillacs.
Slow-mo footage of some on-track misses - Esteban Ocon misses a corner, and Max Verstappen turns in for a chicane that his car doesn't fancy taking. Antonelli also gets a bit of traffic ahead of him.
No other soft-tyre takers just yet, as we approach the end of the first hour. Still 30 minutes to go though...
The Aston Martins have been the first takers for a set of softs (assuming the timing data isn't wrong).
Stroll moves up to 18th with a 1m33.399s, while Alonso gave up on his first push - but the Spaniard then takes 18th for himself - setting a 1m32.963s.
Leclerc sets a 1m29.855s, so he's now up to top spot over Antonelli. Hamilton goes third fastest, 0.340s off his team-mate.
Verstappen, meanwhile, complains that "the shifts are horrendous, up and down".
Colapinto and Gasly have got into the top 10 - although Hulkenberg's just pushed Gasly down to 11th with his latest effort on the hards.
Midfield looks close: Red Bull isn't quite out of the woods just yet, with Alpine, Haas, Audi, and Racing Bulls all in the mix.
Norris' latest attempt, still on the same set of hard tyres that he's used since the start of the session, is good enough for second - just 0.129s off Antonelli's effort.
Leclerc is only 0.166s off the pace so far too, so we've got three teams closely matched so far.
After a bit of a break to refuel and assess the data, we've got a few more takers back on track. The Red Bulls are circulating on the mediums; the timing screens suggested that Hamilton has bolted on a pair of softs, but this isn't quite right.
Verstappen cracks open the Red Bull rear wing once more - it's a huge opening, which will take a ton of drag out of the rear end once straight mode is applied. He's currently fourth overall - Red Bull looking a little bit less troubled here so far.
Now, who's going to be the first team to develop a fully retractable wing?
Stroll goes out after Aston Martin lost 20 minutes to an in-garage power issue, and Alonso joins him.
Antonelli now goes quickest with a 1m30.079s - there's the Mercedes we expected.
Russell adds to his turbo gripes, doing an impression of a steam train to explain the sound. Neither Mercedes driver appears to have turned up thus far, although we're a way away from the true performance runs.
Hamilton moves up to second, 0.540s off Norris.
Hadjar demos the new active aero rear wing at Red Bull, which looks like a more extreme version of Ferrari's "Macarena" wing.
Norris sets another best lap, a 1m30.335s.
"It smells very strange in the car," Gasly reports. Possibly some trackside comestibles, possibly something powertrain-y. Russell also asks his team to check his turbocharger, as it's quite noisy.
Verstappen is second, 0.359s off Norris' earlier lap, while Bortoleto bowls a wide and has to skate across the run-off.
Antonelli went up to second, but 0.7s behind Norris' current benchmark. Leclerc then posts a 1m31.140s, as Hamilton goes about 0.15s slower than his team-mate.
Only the Astons are yet to venture onto the circuit so far, as the two Alpine cars make their way onto the track.
Leclerc posts a 1m31.874s, still on hards, but Norris was bobbing along speedily and did a 1m30.688s - which is jolly quick.
Norris now posts a 1m31.941s. All of these laps so far have been set on the hard tyre, so it's not much of an indicator of pace.
The Cadillacs jump onto the circuit in medium tyres, looking to get some understanding behind their revisions for this weekend. Plenty of aero updates on the Caddy.
We've got a few more takers on the circuit now as the drivers look to get acquainted with the change in regs, new updates, and anything else that was new over the off-season.
Early times on the doors: Leclerc does a 1m33.620s, Hamilton then posts a 1m32.564s.
Racing Bulls' yellow livery
Racing Bulls Miami special livery
Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool
Free practice is go!
Here we go! Plenty of work to get through, and plenty for the drivers to get their heads around.
The first driver on track is Carlos Sainz, looking to put some mileage on Williams' new parts. Both Ferraris and Lawson also hit the road.
Miami GP practice coming up...
Just a couple of minutes to go before we get rolling in Miami, as the cars prepare to wind around the Hard Rock Stadium...
Are we excited? Yes? Good.
Hard Rock Stadium logo
Photo by: Steven Tee / LAT Images via Getty Images
Ferrari's exhaust winglet gets copied
"We're all shameless plagiarists," Alpine's Steve Nielsen said in testing, explaining that it would be long before F1's more intriguing design quirks in 2026 would find their way onto other cars.
Indeed, his team, plus Mercedes, have found ways of implementing the exhaust outlet wing that Ferrari uses to increase rear-end downforce.
Photo by: Stuart Codling
Photo by: Stuart Codling
Miami practice
Since there's only one practice session this weekend, it'll run for 90 minutes to give the teams and drivers a chance to understand the revised reg changes for this round.
Then, we'll be straight into sprint qualifying later on. Lots to do, then, once we finally get going here.
Red Bull's new sidepods, and Ferrari bargeboards
Red Bull's been pretty comprehensive with its changes for Miami, with a new set of angular sidepods featuring a return for the waterslide-style upper surface.
Ferrari has also tweaked its bargeboard package, doubling the leading edge elements to process more of the tyre wake.
Photo by: Stuart Codling
Photo by: Stuart Codling
What's different in Miami?
After a series of meetings during the break between Suzuka and Miami, the regulations have been tweaked slightly to decrease the required recharge rate in qualifying and to minimise the energy 'starvation' across the weekend.
Plus, we've also got new updates: Red Bull has its own version of the Macarena wing, and it looks like Alpine is cooking up something here as well...
Photo by: Stuart Codling
Photo by: Stuart Codling
F1's back! Miami practice coming up...
Well, isn't this a novelty - a Formula 1 weekend! Hello everyone, hope you've been well over the past month or so. We're back, and right into the heart of a sprint weekend.
And, as expected, there's a ton of upgrades around the field...unless you're Aston Martin, of course.
Franco Colapinto, Alpine
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
