Formula 1 | Miami, EL3: Pérez is ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen, Ocon in the wall

After two free practice sessions this Friday dominated by Charles Leclerc and George Russell, the F1 peloton took part in the EL3 of the Miami Grand Prix. This last free session had stakes at Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes.

Indeed, Carlos Sainz ran out of running yesterday after crashing his Ferrari F1-75 into the wall at the start of EL2. At Red Bull, Max Verstappen suffered two mechanical problems which prevented him from driving.

For Mercedes F1, it was an opportunity to confirm the good dispositions of Russell and Lewis Hamilton. The developments on the W13 seemed to bear fruit, with less pronounced porpoising, even if the seven-time world champion had difficulty confirming the nature and origin of this progress.

At the bosses’ press conference, Toto Wolff confirmed that the « low-drag package passed » to the team. On a less rough surface, Wolff confirmed that the porpoising of the W13 « is not articulated like on other circuits. I think we managed to gain some time. »

But Wolff remained cautious: « Yesterday was a good day but the circumstances were probably in our favour. I want to be careful. If we had put this car in Imola under 10 degrees and there rain, the picture would have been a little better, but not good enough. »

An accident for Ocon and still lost driving

Verstappen was the first to set a time of 1’34″037 on medium tyres. Leclerc improved significantly on soft tires with a 1’32″250, but Verstappen, still on medium, fell to two tenths.

Sergio Pérez, on hard courts, took provisional third place. The AlphaTauri riders were also hard compound. Verstappen then set the fastest time in 1m31.355s. Mick Schumacher spun but just after that he took third place on the soft tires, just ahead of Russell on the mediums.

The session was interrupted after 15 minutes, following an exit from the track by Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman lost control of his Alpine A522 at the same place as Sainz yesterday, and in the same way, but the shock was more violent.

The session was interrupted for just over 10 minutes to evacuate the injured car, but also to check that the infrastructure had not suffered from the contact.

Valtteri Bottas took third place with his Alfa Romeo. The Finn lacked rolling after a run off the track in FP1 which ruined his FP2, and he quickly got into the rhythm on soft tyres.

Behind Bottas and Sainz, we then found Kevin Magnussen, then Fernando Alonso, who interposed in front of Schumacher. Pérez, the AlphaTauri drivers and the McLaren drivers were far behind after only going out on hard tyres.

Leclerc then took control of the session in 1’30″981. Russell was finally doing his first lap on soft tyres, like Hamilton, who moved up to fourth place. Russell was placed three thousandths ahead of his team-mate, but complained that the tires were « nowhere ».

Pierre Gasly then moved ahead of Russell by 23 thousandths, but the two men were nine tenths behind Leclerc’s time. Again, it was to be the third force on the board that an intense fight seemed to be looming.

Hamilton took third place. Bottas, Hamilton, Gasly and Russell were separated at that point in the session by 39 thousandths of a second.

The Red Bull drivers then went on the attack with the soft rubbers. Pérez was the first to lap the fastest compound, and he clocked a 1’30.699 that put him in the lead. Verstappen quickly beat him in 1’30.649.

Daniel Ricciardo grabbed fourth place a second behind Verstappen, but he was beaten by Alonso, who closed within seven tenths. Alex Albon moved up to sixth place, he who had already signed a top 10 yesterday.

The porpoising was back at Mercedes, while Pérez took the lead in 1’30.304. Sebastian Vettel took fourth time, and Sainz fifth. Lance Stroll and Tsunoda in turn moved up to the top 10.

Verstappen was improving but lost control in the twisty chicane after going on the curb. He did not touch the wall but had to abort his attempt, which once again prevented him from making start attempts at the end of the session.

Leclerc then signed the best first sector but he failed to beat Pérez. He set the second time, while Sainz did not progress. Schumacher took sixth place, and Magnussen took eighth place.

It was therefore Pérez who set the best time in these EL3s, ahead of Leclerc, Verstappen, Alonso, Vettel, Schumacher, Sainz, Magnussen, Albon and Lando Norris. Several drivers did not improve, such as Bottas, 14th, Hamilton, 15th, Gasly, 16th and Russell, 17th.

The Mercedes drivers came out on medium tires and did not try to do better. The objective for them was to do a test start with the yellow sidewall tires, in view of the race.