Leclerc Tops Ferrari 1-2 Threat With 1m 29.310s in Miami FP1
Charles Leclerc put ferrari on top of Friday’s only practice session for the 2026 Miami Grand Prix, setting a 1m 29.310s lap at the Miami International Autodrome. He finished ahead of Max Verstappen and Oscar Piastri, and the result came in a weekend where teams had just one session to sort their cars before the rest of the Sprint format.
Leclerc Finds Pace in FP1
The Ferrari driver had already shown the shape of the session before the final push, improving from 1m 29.855s before lowering the benchmark again. Andrea Kimi Antonelli had briefly led on 1m 30.079s after about half an hour, but Leclerc’s final effort reset the order and left him fastest when FP1 closed.
Lando Norris sat in the mid-1m30s bracket before Leclerc went quickest, and Lewis Hamilton also reached third in the sister Ferrari at one stage. That gave Ferrari a useful baseline from the 90-minute session, which was extended beyond the usual 60 minutes for the Sprint weekend.
Miami Sprint Practice Pressure
The limited track time shaped the entire hour and a half. By the 15-minute mark, everyone except Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had been out on track, and both Aston Martin drivers were the first to switch to the softest rubber.
That run did not deliver a clean read for the team. Alonso and Stroll could only manage 18th and 19th, about three seconds off the pace, and Aston Martin also had a power issue in its garage. It was the only squad not to declare any aerodynamic developments for the weekend.
Ferrari and Red Bull Updates
Ferrari arrived with an updated version of its flip-flop rear wing, while Red Bull deployed a rotating concept of its own. Those changes made FP1 more than a simple shake-down, because the session doubled as the main window for checking parts before the competitive part of the weekend.
Elsewhere on track, Pierre Gasly reported a very strange smell aboard his Alpine, and George Russell said his turbo was making a lot of noises, a bit like a steam train. For Ferrari, though, the headline remained the same: Leclerc left Friday’s only practice with the fastest lap and the clearest early edge at Miami.
