#MiamiGP FP1: @GeorgeRussell63 pips @LewisHamilton in @MercedesAMGF1 one-two. #F1

Russell Miami GP FP1 – George Russell left his soft-tyre run late to pip team-mate Lewis Hamilton in a Mercedes one-two in FP1 at the Miami GP as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc rounded out the top three.

Russell posted a late 1:30.125 benchmark on the C5 red side-walled softer compounds and was 0.212 seconds quicker than team-mate Hamilton with Leclerc a further 0.324 seconds adrift of the Briton in third.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen lead the field out to start the running on the mediums and harder rubber, the Dane therefore registered the first lap time of a 1:36.852 on the yellow-marked tyre.

Alpine’s Esteban Ocon and Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg then pushed on the mediums and hards respectively, before Hamilton ended the opening five minutes by going fastest on a 1:34.527.

But that did not last long as reigning world champion Max Verstappen – unlike Hamilton using the C3 hards at this phase – went quickest on his second attempt at his initial flyer having gone off at turn one on his first shot.

The times continued to tumble as the Miami International Autodrome continued to evolve and rubber in as the drivers completed their initial stints, with several having off-track excursions at turn one and turn 11 at the end of the long back-straight, struggling for grip on the new circuit surface.

During this stage of proceedings, Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Nyck de Vries lost the rear of his AT04 racer and spun around halfway through the long, tightening turn 12 right-hander, after which Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz hit P1 with a 1:33.823.

Hamilton then went faster before Verstappen, still on the same set of C3 hards, set a 1:32.465 that he trounced with his fourth flying tour to close out the opening 15 minutes of the hour-long session.

The field then pitted with a short quiet lull in the session before many drivers put on the softs for the first time, with Hulkenberg the first to do so and hitting the top of the time-sheets with a 1:31.392 just before the 30-minute mark.

Once that passed, Red Bull duo Verstappen and Sergio Perez completed their initial stints on the softs, with the latter beating Hulkenberg’s effort despite having to catch a snap of over-steer going through the rapid turn 4/5 in the flowing section early in the tour around the Hard Rock Stadium.

Perez though, could not beat Hulkenberg during this phase and put his RB19 entry in third behind the Haas, which was then the focus as the latter crashed at turn three on a third flying lap attempt on the same set of softer compounds.

Having only narrowly gone slower than his personal-best effort on his second soft hot-lap, Hulkenberg ran slightly-off going through turn three, and rapidly lost the rear of his VF-23 racer, spinning around and slamming the right side against the wall and sending debris across the circuit.

As the German’s car was recovered the session was red flagged for eight minutes.

When FP1 continued with 15 minutes remaining, Verstappen emerged on the softs and lowered the benchmark with a 1:30.549, this time completing his hot-lap without a moment in sector one.

Leclerc then jumped into second place before being relegated by team-mate Sainz a few moments later, which edged Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso down to fourth.

Heading into the final five minutes of proceedings, Leclerc went for a second stint on his second flying lap on his softs and got back in-front of Sainz, still 0.253 slower than Verstappen ahead, whilst Sainz’s second attempt had to be aborted very quickly as the Ferrari driver lost the rear of his SF-23 racer and had to go into the turn one run-off.

As the Ferrari pairing were preparing for another shot on the softs, the Mercedes duo finally took off the C4 mediums, with Russell losing a chunk of time early on as his team opted to take off a development steering part, which was deemed too heavy based on the Briton’s early feedback.

Having remained on the medium rubber at first after the red flag, the Mercedes drivers were demoted to near the end of the classification and were only kept off by de Vries, who had not returned after completing 10 tours on the hards – the least of any driver in opening practice.

Hamilton lead team-mate Russell around with Leclerc also charging in-between them, and the former jumped fron 19th in the order to the top with a 1:30.337.

Leclerc then moved in-front of Verstappen into second with a 1:30.449, until Russell completed his soft flyer and also jumping from 19th to the top of the order with a 1:30.125.

Sainz’s soft stint ended with a personal best effort, but that was not enough to get ahead of fourth-placed Verstappen, with the latter going back to the harder tyres for the final minutes of running.

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly had a scary moment off in the turn three run-off area after catching a big snap of over-steer through the second corner late-on, but wound up sixth ahead of Aston Martin’s Alonso.

The other Aston Martin AMR23 of Lance Stroll took eighth and in-front of the aforementioned Hulkenberg who ended up ninth after his earlier shunt.

The second Alpine A523 of Ocon completed the top 10.

Baku GP winner Sergio Perez placed outside the top 10 in his Red Bull taking 11th and ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri who ended the session 12th, Haas F1 Team’s Magnussen who finished 13th in the classification and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas who came 14th in the order.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon took 15th and in-front of McLaren’s Lando Norris who took 16th and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu who was 17th.

AlphaTauri pairing Yuki Tsunoda and the aforementioned de Vries were 18th and brought up the rear respectively as Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant split the duo in 19th.

You can see the full Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2023 Free Practice 1 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1208/miami/practice-1.html

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