Kevin Magnussen led the pack at an early start on the medium tyres – so the Dane established the first place benchmark with a time of 1m 36.852s on yellowwall rubber.
Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg then took the lead on the medium and the hard tyres, respectively, before Lewis Hamilton finished fastest at 1m 34.527s. The opening five minutes of the hourly schedule.
But it didn’t last long, as Verstappen – unlike Hamilton on the hard tyres, at this stage – was fastest on his second attempt at the first, which went into 1. No. 1 corner final race.
Time continued to slide as the drivers completed their initial quest, and several had off-track moments at Turns 1 and 11 at the end of the long, winding back straight, where they were on the new track. Struggling for grip on the surface.
In the meantime, Nyck de Vries lost the rear end of his AlphaTauri and spun midway through the long, sharp right-hand turn 12 before Carlos Sainz 1 The score of 33.823 meters ran the fastest.
Hamilton was faster ahead of Verstappen, still on the same set of hard tracks, posting 1m32.465s, which he beat with a fourth lap attempt, finishing the first session with 1m31.826s.
The teams then pitted, and after a short pause, many drivers switched to the soft for the first time, with Hulkenberg being the first to do so, and was officially back on top of the time in 1m 31.392s just before the half-way mark .
Once past it, Verstappen and Perez completed their first race on the soft road, with the latter beating Hulkenberg in 1m31.054s despite having to catch a big 4/5 in between a quick turn 4/5 in the fluid part of the lap early on. A snapshot of oversteer near Hard Rock Stadium.
Perez was unable to beat Hulkenberg at this stage, however, and his Red Bull car, second behind Haas, was in focus as Hulkenberg crashed at Turn 3 on his third lap attempt on the same set of soft tyres.
Hulkenberg was only marginally slower than his personal best on his second slippery flight as he went slightly off course through Turn 3 and quickly lost the back of his car, spinning and going The right hits the wall and sends debris across the track.
The race was suspended for eight minutes as Hulkenberg’s car had to recover from a damaged right front wheel.
When FP1 resumed ahead of the final quarter, Verstappen resumed action on the padded and improved the first place benchmark to 1m30.549s – this time he completed his flight without a moment in the first section.
Leclerc was relegated to second by Sainz a few minutes later, pushing Fernando Alonso to fourth.
Going into the final five minutes, Leclerc made a second run on his soft ball and took the lead over Sainz, still 0.253 seconds behind Verstappen in the lead, while Sainz’s second attempt failed. Not giving up quickly because he lost his SF-23 and had to go into the Turn 1 tiebreaker.
As Ferrari prepared to try the soft tires for a third time, Mercedes finally switched off the medium tyres—Russell lost a chunk of time early on when his team decided to remove a development steering component that, according to his design, This part was considered too heavy early feedback.
The Mercedes drivers, who initially stayed in the middle after the red flag, were out of order and only de Vries kept them off the back of the field, who did not reappear after completing 10 laps of the hard – — This is the least number of drivers in FP1 of all drivers.
Hamilton led Russell and Leclerc pushed again between them, with the seven-time world champion jumping from 19th to first in 1m 30.337s.
Leclerc then moved ahead of Verstappen with a time of 1:30.449, putting him in second until Russell completed his soft-sliding flight, also jumping from 19th to lead with a time of 1:30.125 The result is ahead of Hamilton.
Sainz’s third soft run set a personal best before the end of the race, but it couldn’t move him ahead of Verstappen’s fourth, with Red Bull switching to the hard tire in the closing minutes.
Pierre Gasly had a wild moment in the Turn 3 decider after a huge bump late through Turn 2, but ended up ahead of Alonso Alpine’s sixth place.
Lance Stroll finished eighth behind his Aston Martin teammate, with Hulkenberg ninth despite his early retirement.
Ocon is in the top 10, with Baku double-winner Perez only 11th and not going any faster after his first soft pitch.
Leclerc reported that his rear checkered flag was “moving slowly” on his lap.
F1 Miami Grand Prix – FP1 Results