Official F1 Journal Sprint Friday Formula 1 Round Up- Miami

Practice 

Kevin Magnussen was the first man out onto the track, followed by the 2 Mclaren who were running 9 fairly major upgrades to the car, but it wasn't smooth sailing for Norris finding it much harder to turn right than left on his first laps around Miami. Also bringing upgrades here were Redbull & Mercedes but only small changes being made by both teams. By the time 5 minutes of the 60 had passed all the cars  were out on track, just in time for Leclerc to bring out Yellow flags after he spun at turn 16 taking to much kerb, when he tried to spin turn the car to rejoin, he didn't go all the way around and blocked the track, ending up getting stuck and bringing out a Red flag when he over heated the clutch and was unable to move the car further.

When running resumed almost all the cars were straight out with the exception of Perez, Ocon and obviously Leclerc. After their first laps around the track Perez was fastest followed by Russell, Hamilton & Piastri, while Norris was still not happy with his steering. Logan Sargeant found the run off on his first laps around the track, joined by Verstappen who was also off the tarmac at turn 18, both rejoined safely. Zhou and both Redbull's & Mercedes were the only ones to start the session on Medium tyres with everyone else choosing to run the Hard's.
25 minutes on the clock and Verstappen found the run off at turn 16 again rejoining Safely but not happy with his brakes. Fernando Alonso was also not happy with his car complaining about both the front and rear of ​his Aston Martin.

20 minutes to go Norris found his pace going 2nd fastest behind a rapid Carlos Sainz, Perez was 3rd, Piastri 4th, followed by the Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton. Max Verstappen was down in 16th having trouble with his brakes locking. 
12 minutes to go and we saw the 1st set of Soft tyres on the Sauber's  of Zhou & Bottas. Albon had a big snap at turn 4 on his soft tyre run when the rear locked on him into a very high speed section, Verstappen again had a snap on the rear at turn 7 really not happy with his car today. ​

9 minute on the clock Gasly went top on his first flying lap on Softs's, 0.156 faster than Sainz on the Hards. Russell was purple sector 1 when he put the Softs on going top of the times, team mate Lewis Hamilton could only manage 3rd fastest. With 3 minutes to go Perez went top while team mate and reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was down in 19th. When Max finally set a solid lap you could still see the car fighting him as he had a small lock up at the final corner still managing to go fastest of all by 0.189 over Russel in 2nd until Piastri jumped to 2nd fastest Sainz to 3rd.

Practice Result

1 VER                  2 PIA +0.105
3 SAI +0.116        4 RUS +0.189
5 STR +0.222       6 PER +0.273
7 HAM +0.417      8 TSU +0.461
9 OCO +0.568     10 GAS +0.580
11 RIC +0.583     12 MAG +0.594
13 HUL +0.719    14 ALB +0.798
​15 ZHO +0.850    16 NOR +0.900
17 BOT+1.041     18 SAR +1.296 
19 ALO +1.428     20 LEC +3.504

Qualifying-

SQ1 - 12 minutes  Medium Tyres Only  

Charles Leclerc was the first man on a hot lap but went slighty wide at turn 6 which ruined the lap and it was quickly beaten by both Saubers and Aston Martins. After all their first flying laps it was Verstappen fastest Piastri 2nd Perez 3rd. Sainz found himself in the drop zone after his first lap but managed much better on his 2nd go jumping up to 4th fastest. Fernando Alonso was the first man to hit the wall this weekend escaping unscathed thankfully, but Leclerc was 0.03(3rd) faster pushing his team mate down to 6th. There was a very close call for Oscar Piastri at turn 1 when a slow moving Valteri Bottas turned in on him hitting him as the Mclaren tried to start a fast lap. 

With 1 minute to go all the cars were on track except Leclerc and Zhou who was on the edge of the drop zone with cars going faster. Hulkenberg went safe to 14th as Russell jumpd to 4th. Sargeant couldn't improve and will start 20th & last  Alonso who was pushed into the drop out put in a mega lap to go 2nd till Norris tipped the times with Piastri 2nd. Albon had his fastest lap deleted and dropped from 16th - 20th. 

SQ1 Result 

NOR 1'27.939          2 PIA +0.117
3 ALO +0.253           4 VER +0.255
5 MAG +0.438          6 RUS +0.4448
7 SAI +0.496            8 LEC +0.598
9 PER +0.742          10 TSU 0.748
11 RIC +0.761          12 HAM +0.797
13 STR +0.868         14 OCO +0.934
15 HUL +1.100         16 GAS +1.172
17 ZHO +1.185        18 BOT +1.360
19 SAR +1.551        20 ALB - N/A 

SQ2 10 Minutes  Mediums Only 

Everyone was straight out for the 10 minutes of Sprint Qualifying. Perez was the 1st man to set a time, it was 8 tenths faster than his SQ1 time. The Mercedes although fastest in the 1st sector was losing a lot of time in the 2nd & 3rd as Lando Norris went top with a 1'27.597. What a lap! 
With 3 minutes on the clock both Lewis Hamilton(11th) & Verstappen (14th) found themselves in the drop zone, Verstappen without even a lap time along with Tsunoda and the clock ticked past 2 minute to go.

With 1 minute on the clock Norris was fastest Perez 2nd & Leclerc 3rd and as Max started his lap it was looking a bit scruffy and he could only manage 4th fastest with Ricciardo behind him in 5th.
As the Chequered flag fell Oco could only manage 13th but both Mercedes were in the drop Zone Russell was improving, the same was true of his team mate who hit the wall pretty hard in the same place as Alonso earlier and both Mercedes were out in SQ2. 

SQ2 Result 

1 NOR 1'27.597       2 PER +0.268
3 LEC +0.380           4 VER +0.404
5 RIC +0.525            6 PIA +0.566
7 ALO +0.592           8 SAI +0.665
9 STR +0.726          10 HUL 1'28.330
11 RUS +0.013        12 HAM +0.041
13 OCO +0.049       14 MAG +0.284
15 TSU +0.406

SQ3- 8 Minutes Soft Tyres Only 

As the clock counted down it became clear that the whole top 10 were going to try 1 run with possibly 2 laps but as we saw in Practice the Soft tyre couldn't manage 2 laps at full speed and dropped of massively in lap 2. 
3 1/2 minutes on the clock  cars began to file out of the pits. Hulkenberg was the first man to start his flying lap followed by Perez and Verstappen. Max looked much happier on this tyre but took to much kerb at turn 16 losing time but still going top of the times and fastest but with lots of cars going faster behind. 

As the Chequered Flag fell Max went Pole, Norris was slow of the Soft tyres as Leclerc was flying almost matched by Sainz, Norris could only manage 6th with more cars to cross the line. Leclerc went 2nd fastest and team mate Sainz 5th behind a rapid Daniel Ricciardo who put in a mega lap to start tomorrows Sprint 4th, Piastri could only manage 6th fastest pushing his team mate further down to 9th. Lance Stroll beat his team mate Fernando Alonso to start 7th. 

SQ3 Result 

1 VER 1'27.641
2 LEC +0.108
3 PER +0.235
4 RIC +0.403
5 SAI +0.462
6 PIA +0.520
7 STR +0.734
8 ALO +0.778
9 NOR +0.831
​10 HUL +0.835

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @f1journal.co.uk