Piastri Tops Miami Practice as Bearman Crash Creates Sprint Qualifying Uncertainty

Oscar Piastri finished at the top of the timesheets in the only practice session held for the Miami Grand Prix. The session was significantly impacted by a crash involving Oliver Bearman, which prevented many competitors from completing their crucial preparations for the Sprint Qualifying session scheduled for later on Friday.

With drivers having just 60 minutes of track time to get ready for the entire weekend ahead, teams had planned their soft-tyre qualifying simulation runs for the final 10 minutes. However, Bearman spun his Haas car into the barriers at Turn 12 during this critical window, triggering a red flag that prematurely ended the session.

World championship leader Piastri was one of the few drivers who managed to complete a flying lap before the red flag. His effort put him three tenths of a second ahead of Ferrari`s Charles Leclerc, who finished second. Red Bull`s Max Verstappen was a further tenth back in third place.

Lando Norris, Piastri`s McLaren teammate and his closest rival in the championship standings, ended up only 12th. He was in the final sector of his first attempt at a quick lap when the session was stopped by the red flag.

Norris had lost over three tenths in the first sector but had halved that deficit by the second sector. This left ambiguity regarding the potential ultimate gap between the two McLaren drivers.

The Williams pair, Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon, secured fourth and fifth positions respectively. They were among the first teams to send their cars out on soft tyres, benefiting from the clear track before the incident.

Lewis Hamilton was another prominent driver who missed out on the opportunity to complete a flying lap on soft tyres. The seven-time world champion finished the session in 13th place.

Hamilton`s struggles from the start of the season showed little improvement during his runs on medium tyres earlier in the session, after which he was placed eighth.

George Russell, also driving for Mercedes, had set the fastest time on the medium compound. He finished seventh overall on the timesheet despite not getting a lap in on the soft compound tyres.

Arriving at the sixth round of the season, Piastri carried significant momentum, having recently achieved career firsts with back-to-back victories and by taking the lead in the world championship standings, holding a 10-point advantage over Norris.

The Australian experienced a minor moment of concern when he grazed the barriers on his worn medium tyres. However, he seemed comfortable and confident when setting his leading time later on.

Norris had a busy session filled with incidents. It began unusually when he discovered tools left in his cockpit by mechanics on his very first lap. He had to immediately return to the pit lane to remove them, and McLaren was subsequently called to the stewards for deploying the car in an `unsafe` condition.

Later, Norris had a major scare when he narrowly avoided colliding with the rear of Esteban Ocon`s Haas. Ocon had significantly slowed down on the racing line on the high-speed approach to Turn 17. Fortunately, contact was averted, but Ocon was summoned to the stewards post-session to explain the incident.

Reigning world champion Max Verstappen showed no negative effects from his delayed arrival in Miami. He had missed the usual Thursday media sessions to be home for the birth of his first child.

Verstappen`s Red Bull team is notably the only leading team to introduce significant upgrades in Miami, specifically an updated floor. However, the limited track time during the shortened practice session made it challenging for them to fully assess the impact of these new components.

Miami GP Practice One Results