Miami Grand Prix – Free Practice 1: Russell leads a Mercedes double

It was scorching hot in Miami, just a week after Formula 1 had completed its fourth race of the season in Baku.

One of the major attractions was of course this Red Bull adorned with pink lines: a fan of the team was chosen to create this design. Indeed, pink suits the blue cars this season.

It took several minutes to get representative lap times. However, George Russell was hindered by a barely functional steering wheel and was somewhat limited in pushing for performance. Last year, Charles Leclerc had set a lap time of 1’31″098.

At the start of the session, the Red Bulls proved to be quite difficult to handle: both Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez went straight at the first braking zone, just like Charles Leclerc, who appears to be getting back on track. Nyck de Vries, who has been struggling since the beginning of the season, nearly crashed his AlphaTauri at turn 12.

Lewis Hamilton was the first to come close to last year’s free practice 1 reference, before Max Verstappen overtook him with a time of 1’32″465, on hard tires. The lap record is expected to easily fall this weekend. The Mercedes seems quite comfortable at the beginning of this weekend.

Proof of this is that Verstappen hammered the nail a few minutes later, with a time of 1’31″825. Furthermore, he achieved this time on hard tires: the hierarchy was not easy to define, even in terms of concrete gaps. Nico Hülkenberg was the first to switch to soft tires, followed by Kevin Magnussen, with just under half an hour of the session remaining.

It is already interesting to note the very significant difference in performance between each tire, from one car to another. Hülkenberg, more comfortable than Magnussen, thus set the fastest provisional time. The German driver was beaten by only three tenths by Max Verstappen, while Sergio Pérez remains half a second behind his Dutch teammate.

Hülkenberg, from hero to zero

The first red flag was waved: Nico Hülkenberg, who was usually very comfortable, lost the rear of his Haas at Turn 3, with 25 minutes of work remaining in this first session.

This first hour of testing was restarted 17 minutes before its end, with the Red Bull team leading the way. All the drivers on the track chose the soft tires to finish this session, with the notable exception of the Mercedes team (who used mediums).

His teammate Esteban Ocon, on the other hand, remained in 7th place, over a second behind Max Verstappen’s benchmark.

This one was quickly threatened by the Mercedes, first Lewis Hamilton, then George Russell, with a time of 1’30″125. We’re already driving one second faster than last year in free practice! Russell thus takes the best time with 1’30″125, Lewis Hamilton second by two tenths.

Pierre Gasly has positioned himself reassuringly in the Top 10, in 6th place.

The results of Free Practice 1 of the 2023 Miami Grand Prix F1