Leclerc pips Verstappen to top practice, as reliability issues hit Antonelli

Charles Leclerc pipped Max Verstappen to top the sole practice session of the Miami Grand Prix weekend, while power unit issues struck Formula 1 championship leader Kimi Antonelli.

Ferrari’s Leclerc set a 1m29.310s late on, putting him almost three tenths above the Red Bull driver with Oscar Piastri for McLaren making it three different teams inside the top three.

It was a more frustrating session for the otherwise dominant Mercedes outfit, which has won all three grands prix this year, as it achieved a best finish of fifth with Antonelli’s session ending early.

This was the first session since Japan at the end of March due to the Middle Eastern conflict forcing the cancellations of the Bahrain and Saudi Arabian rounds scheduled for April.

So that, coupled with it being a sprint weekend and various tweaks to the 2026 regulations being debuted, Miami practice was extended to 90 minutes with each team bar Aston Martin showcasing various car upgrades.

It resulted in a busy start to the session as teams largely stuck to the hard tyre in a window which lasted for much of the session with Leclerc fastest on a 1m29.855s. 

But Mercedes and McLaren were both within four tenths so the margins were fine in a very drama-free period; a frustrated Antonelli caused the only boiling point after he was forced into slowing down upon approaching a weaving Lance Stroll into Turn 11.

It was only with 13 minutes remaining that the true performance runs started and Verstappen bolted to the top of the leaderboard with a 1m29.776 on the soft tyres. 

He dropped to second moments later though as Leclerc regained top spot with a 1m29.443s, before improving again to a 1m29.310s thanks to a tow from Lando Norris on the back straight.

Verstappen also improved late on to a 1m29.607s, leaving the four-time world champion in second and just 0.297s off top. It marked a positive end to an otherwise frustrating session for him as he complained earlier that “the shifts are horrendous, up and down”, while Red Bull also debuted a rear wing that looks like a more extreme version of Ferrari’s ‘Macarena Wing’.

Piastri rounded out the top three for McLaren with a 1m29.759s, also set on the softs, while Leclerc’s team-mate Lewis Hamilton took fourth and was 0.467s off the pace.

Antonelli completed the top five, despite his best time (1m30.079s) coming on the hard rubber as a power unit issue meant he missed the soft-tyre runs. 

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing

Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images

So the Mercedes driver finishing high up is more down to his direct competition not really putting a solid lap together at the end, as team-mate George Russell claimed sixth with a 1m30.100s.

Next up was seventh-placed Norris, who initially looked set for top spot on his first soft tyre run, only to then take the run-off area at Turn 17 to avoid shunting the back of Alex Albon’sslow Williams.

Oliver Bearman (1m31.091s), Pierre Gasly (1m31.241s) and Franco Colapinto (1m31.480s) respectively completed the top 10, while 11th went to Isack Hadjar who, much like Red Bull team-mate Verstappen, reported issues with his car’s downshifting.

It was the usual suspects towards the back as Cadillac and Aston Martin took four of the bottom five positions; Aston Martin being plagued by an in-garage power outage at the start of Miami practice.

Racing Bulls rookie Arvid Lindblad was the other driver in the bottom five, as he was in and out of his garage throughout.

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– The Autosport.com Team