Max Verstappen of the Netherlands driving the Red Bull Racing RB20 leads the field into turn one at the start during the F1 Grand Prix of Miami. McLaren's Australian driver Oscar Piastri has been relegated from second to fifth on the grid for Sunday's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix for impeding Haas's Kevin Magnussen during qualifying.
Oscar Piastri's McLaren will start alongside the unstoppable Dutchman on Sunday after posting the second fastest time in a tight qualifying session. Leclerc sets a lap of 1:15.328 and Tsunoda gets close to that - he goes second by 0.030s. Verstappen is now third, ahead of Piastri, Norris and Sainz.Despite a very scrappy final corner, Verstappen goes quick with a 1:15.386 for the Dutchman - half a second ahead of his teammate with Hulkenberg going into third.
In a disrupted but dramatic session it was evident that Red Bull were unable to reproduce their normal dominating form, offering the prospect of a straight scrap between the McLaren and Ferrari teams in qualifying later Saturday. Leclerc clocked a best lap in one minute and 15.906 seconds to ease 0.192 clear of nearest rival Oscar Piastri of McLaren with RB's Yuki Tsunoda snatching third in a closely-bunched pack at the front of the field.It signalled a successful first day for Leclerc's partnership with new race engineer Bryan Bozzi.
Earlier, on a beautiful, dry sunlit afternoon at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Verstappen swiftly took control with a lap in 1:16.930 - a major improvement after his earlier struggles in FP1 - to go top ahead of Norris, Leclerc and Sainz. After half of the hour's action, Piastri went second, splitting the Ferraris with a lap just 0.129 seconds off Leclerc's pace before Russell went third, making it three different teams at the front - and Red Bull struggling to join them.
Teams are all doing long race runs to see how the cars perform carrying fuel, so no changes in the times, with Leclerc still fastest. Oh, never mind - cars back out on track! Both Verstappen and Hamilton had troubled sessions with the Dutchman wrestling often with his car to keep it on the asphalt.McLaren's Lando Norris, maiden winner of the race in Miami two weeks ago, was eighth ahead of team-mate Lando Norris and two-time champion Fernado Alonso of Aston Martin.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: TheSAnews - 🏆 25. / 59 Read more »
Source: TheSAnews - 🏆 25. / 59 Read more »
Source: TheSAnews - 🏆 25. / 59 Read more »
Source: TheSAnews - 🏆 25. / 59 Read more »
Source: News24 - 🏆 4. / 80 Read more »
Source: TheSAnews - 🏆 25. / 59 Read more »