Verstappen quickest ahead of Ferraris as Leclerc crashes in second practice

Max Verstappen set the quickest time in second practice for the Miami Grand Prix ahead of both Ferraris after Charles Leclerc crashed out of the session.

The championship leader was the only driver to run under the 1’28 barrier, three tenths of a second ahead of Carlos Sainz Jnr and Leclerc, who hit the barrier at turn eight in the final 10 minutes of the session.

The sun was already beginning its descent over the Florida skyline as the second of Friday’s practice hours got underway. Track conditions were near identical to the first session, with surface temperatures north of 40C as cars ventured out on the circuit.

Drivers had reported poor grip offline from the newly-laid asphalt around the Miami International Autodrome in the afternoon session, but they quickly improved their times from their first laps. Fernando Alonso set the initial benchmark with a 1’32.115 on the hard tyres, but the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz beat that, the former producing a 1’31.459.

The Red Bulls of Verstappen and Sergio Perez then displaced the Ferraris on top of the times with the world champion posting a 1’30.146, easily quicker than his team mate. Kevin Magnussen briefly looped his Haas at the chicane of turns 14 and 15, making light contact with the right-hand barrier but avoiding similar damage to that suffered by team mate Nico Hulkenberg in the earlier session.

Leclerc improved to break under the 90-second barrier for the first time this weekend with a 1’29.497, putting Ferrari back on top. That was short-lived, however, with Verstappen taking a tenth of a second off Leclerc’s best time to regain the top spot on the times. Perez moved to third, a quarter of a second slower than his team mate’s best.

While many of the drivers returned to the garage to change set-ups, Lando Norris headed out in the McLaren on soft tyres. He used the quickest compound to go easily fastest, posting a 1’28.741 to beat Verstappen’s previous benchmark by just over six tenths. Sainz and Alonso both fitted the soft tyres but neither could match the McLaren driver’s best time.

Then it was Verstappen’s turn to run on the soft tyres, with the Red Bull driver duly replacing Norris on the top spot by almost half a second. Leclerc could not match the championship leader, going second-fastest a tenth of a second behind the Red Bull. Sainz beat his team mate’s time to move within a tenth of Verstappen, but the Red Bull driver further improved on his next lap by three tenths to post a 1’27.930.

The second half of the session was dedicated to longer runs as teams looked to gather data ahead of Sunday’s grand prix. However, Leclerc suffered a snap of oversteer as he made his way around the long left-hander halfway around the lap and speared off with his car heavily locked up, crashing into the TecPro barrier with the front of his car.

With the Ferrari in the TecPro, the session was stopped with the red flags flying. Leclerc climbed out of his car to return to the paddock while his Ferrari was cleared. After a five minute delay, the session resumed for the final six minutes of running. Drivers took to the track to run their final laps, but there were no improvements of note at the front of the field before the chequered flag signalled the end of the session.

Verstappen ended the session as the fastest on the day, three tenths ahead of Sainz in second with Leclerc third despite crashing out. Perez was fourth-fastest in the second Red Bull, with Alonso fifth for Aston Martin. Norris was sixth for McLaren, with Lewis Hamilton, Lance Stroll, Esteban Ocon, and Alexander Albon completing the top ten.

2023 Miami Grand Prix second practice result

Position	Number	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	RB19	1’27.930		22
2	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’28.315	0.385	26
3	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’28.398	0.468	20
4	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull	RB19	1’28.419	0.489	23
5	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’28.660	0.730	25
6	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’28.741	0.811	24
7	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’28.858	0.928	22
8	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’28.930	1.000	23
9	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’28.937	1.007	24
10	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’29.046	1.116	26
11	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’29.098	1.168	21
12	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’29.171	1.241	21
13	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’29.181	1.251	26
14	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’29.189	1.259	25
15	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’29.216	1.286	21
16	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’29.339	1.409	24
17	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’29.393	1.463	22
18	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT04	1’29.613	1.683	24
19	21	Nyck de Vries	AlphaTauri-Red Bull	AT04	1’29.928	1.998	24
20	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’30.038	2.108	26

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2023 Miami Grand Prix

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