Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc edged out Mercedes’ George Russell to set the quickest time in first practice for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix, despite an error of judgment on the red-marked track.

The Ferrari driver bolted on a set of the soft Pirelli compound tires to clinch the top spot by just 0.071s, with Mercedes featuring upgrades, including a new low downforce rear, revised front wing, and beam wing. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who has won two of four races this season, briefly topped charts but skimmed the wall on a green track and spent a fair chunk of the session in the garage. He finished third fastest, 0.179s off the pace.

Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was fourth, ahead of the leading AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly – who is onto his third internal combustion engine (with a further change triggering a penalty) – with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz failing to get a soft tire time on the board after he picked up a puncture courtesy of a big lock-up into Turn 1.

Williams’ Alex Albon was a very impressive seventh, around a tenth of a second clear of Lewis Hamilton, who had to abort his soft tire run when he was balked by traffic.

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After all the anticipation, finally we got to see cars on track at @f1miami!#MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/qXVdjhoILj

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 6, 2022

Kevin Magnussen (P9) and Daniel Ricciardo, who had a close encounter when the latter exited the pit lane while Haas driver Magnussen was passing by on a hot lap, completed the top 10.

Miami’s 5.412km, 19-turn street track provided an entertaining session. Several drivers got caught out – most notably Valtteri Bottas, who hit the barriers rear-first at Turn 7 to bring out the red flags.

Lando Norris was 11th, a fraction behind McLaren teammate Ricciardo, with Fernando Alonso the leading Alpine in 12th. The second Alfa Romeo of Zhou Guanyu was 13th, ahead of Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel, Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, and the other Aston Martin of Lance Stroll.

Alfa Romeo’s Bottas ended up 17th, with Yuki Tsunoda – who clipped the wall but continued – 18th for AlphaTauri as Haas’s Mick Schumacher and Williams’ Nicholas Latifi propped up the timesheets.

See the results below for more information.