Max Verstappen produced a late flier to narrowly set the pace for Red Bull ahead of McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in the only practice session at the Miami GP before the competitive sessions begin on F1’s second successive Sprint weekend.
Charles Leclerc’s preparations for Friday evening’s Sprint Qualifying – which is live at 9.30pm on Sky Sports F1 – and indeed the remainder of the weekend suffered an early blow when he completed just two full laps before spinning out of the session in a potentially costly error.
Verstappen had appeared to be having his own struggles around the 3.31-mile street track with the world championship leader twice running wide under braking as he sought to find the ideal balance with his RB20.
But the in-form Dutchman ultimately found the lap he needed to in the session’s final moments and hit the top of the timesheet with a best time on the soft tyres of 1:28.595.
Encouragingly for the chasing pack, however, the early gaps around the wall-lined circuit were relatively close with McLaren’s Piastri and Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz ending just over a tenth adrift of Verstappen in second and third respectively.
McLaren revealed a suite of 10 different upgrades on their MCL38 ahead of the session – a package described as “astonishing” by Sky F1‘s Ted Kravitz – but only Lando Norris is running all of them this weekend, with Piastri’s car having what team chief Zak Brown suggested were around half.
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Join Ted Kravitz in the pit lane to assess the changes made by McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes ahead of the Miami Grand Prix
More to follow…
Sky Sports F1’s live Miami GP schedule
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Managing partner of the 2024 Miami GP Tom Garfinkel tells Sky Sports’ Craig Slater the improvements they have made to the track and it’s surroundings to improve the experience for both competitors and spectators
Saturday May 4
3.25pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
4pm: Miami GP Sprint (race starts at 5pm)
6.30pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook
7.05pm: F1 Academy Race 1
8pm: Miami GP Qualifying build-up*
9pm: Miami GP Qualifying*
11pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook*
Sunday May 5
6.05pm: F1 Academy Race 2
7.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Miami GP build-up*
9pm: The MIAMI GRAND PRIX*
11pm: Chequered Flag: Miami GP reaction*
Midnight: Ted’s Notebook*
*also live on Sky Sports Main Event
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