2023-05-06 00:56:07
the dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), leader of the championship, was the fastest this Friday, ahead of the Spanish Carlos Sainz (Ferrari), in the free practice day for the Miami Grand Prix (USA), the fifth in the Formula 1 World Championship; in which the Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull) -winner last Sunday in Azerbaijan- marked the fourth time; and the other Spaniard, the double world champion Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), the fifth.
In his fast lap of the second free practice -in which the best times of the day were set-, Verstappen, who aspires to achieve a third title in a row, covered the 5,412-meter circuit built around the Hard Rock Stadium in hot Miami in one minute, 27 seconds and 930 thousandths, 385 less than Sainz and with an advantage of 324 thousandths over his partner, the Monegasque Charles Leclerc; which, when colliding with the protections in the seventh of the 19 curves of the circuit, caused the interruption for a few minutes -with ten to go-, with a red flag, of the second session.
The best times were achieved in the followingnoon test, with the soft tire and before everyone began to simulate the race -with 20 minutes to go- on the abrasive and resurfaced track in Florida; where tire management will be decisive. In which ‘Checo’ -winner last Sunday in Baku- marked the fourth time of the trials, 489 thousandths behind ‘Mad Max’ and Alonso the fifth, seven tenths behind the new sports idol of the Netherlands.
After Azerbaijan, where the new sprint format was launched -with two separate qualifications, for each of the two races and a single free practice-, a pattern that will be repeated another five times this year; in Miami F1 returned to its ‘normal’ life; and the day of this Friday was used to do all kinds of tests. On a track that debuted last year; with a new asphalt and subjected to very high temperatures: the first session ended with 30 degrees Celsius ambient and 49 on the asphalt; the second, at 28 and 38, respectively.
Verstappen, who commands the World Cup with 93 points, only six more than ‘Czech’, led the time table ahead of the two Ferraris, with which the Red Bulls made a ‘sandwich’, when the driver from Guadalajara (Jalisco) set the fourth time. On the track built around the stadium where the Miami Dolphins, a team from the NFL, the spectacular professional American football league, play at home.
Alonso, in a second youth at the age of 41 and who is third in the competition, 33 points behind the leader, finished just behind the drivers of the dominant team and the most successful team in history. On a day in which Red Bull announced, through the mouth of the ‘brain’ of the team, the Austrian Helmut Marko, that it has extended the contract -without specifying its duration- of its star engineer, the Englishman Adrian Newey, the guru of aerodynamics: creator of the sensational single-seater with which the German Sebastian Vettel won his four titles (with four ‘doublets’ for the team, between 2010 and 2013); and one of the main people responsible for the new triumphant era that the red bulls are living.
Sainz -fifth in the World Championship, with 34 units-, who acknowledged that he is still not where he would like following the first four races of the course and that he has just finished fifth in Baku, where his teammate Leclerc achieved the first podium of the year for Ferrari -which At the moment, it does not go beyond fourth place in the Constructors’ World Championship- it points to a better weekend in Miami. Where the talented driver from Madrid will aim, at least, at his sixteenth ‘drawer’ in F1.
Alonso, who once once more astonished the world by finishing third in the first three races of the year -his first three with Aston Martin: in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Australia- finished fourth last Sunday in Azerbaijan “on a bad weekend in the one who” fought “for the podium” and stayed just a second away from it, marked the fifth time of the first practice day. Although this time it seems that he will find more opposition from the Ferrari, much to the joy of Sainz.
The Asturian star, seventh in the morning, set the fifth time trial in the evening test. Just behind ‘Czech’, who has just won brilliantly in Azerbaijan -where he signed his sixth victory since he started racing in F1, his second of the season and his second in Baku- and who confirmed last Sunday that, with which he Right now he is by far the best car on the grid, he can dream of becoming world champion.
The Mexican, who will be the leader of the World Cup if he wins in Florida, set the fourth time of the day; a little less than half a second from his colleague from the Netherlands; and with an advantage of two tenths over Alonso.
Surprisingly, it was the Mercedes that dominated the first practice session, with the Englishman George Russell, who had had problems at the beginning of the session, leading the time table -with a time of 1:30.125-, two tenths ahead regarding his compatriot and partner Lewis Hamilton, who on Thursday had openly criticized in Miami the policies of Florida Governor, Republican Ron DeSantis, which clearly cut the rights of the LGBTQI community.
Sir Lewis -who received that title from the late Queen Elizabeth II following winning her seventh world title in 2020- compared the situation in Florida with that of Saudi Arabia and, for this reason, runs this Grand Prix with the rainbow flag in his helmet.
Leclerc and Verstappen had fallen to 32 and 42 hundredths in third and fourth place, respectively, in the first trial. In which Sainz had set the fifth time, at six tenths; Alonso the seventh, one second and one tenth; and ‘Checo’ -one second and four tenths behind Russell’s time- in eleventh place on the time table; before advancing seven squares in the followingnoon.
The morning session was interrupted for regarding eight minutes, with a red flag, to remove the Haas of German Nico Hülkenberg from the track, which had an accident -without major physical consequences- in the third of the 19 curves of the resurfaced track in Miami; when, in the second half of training, following testing the hard and medium compounds, almost everyone had started to do qualifying simulation.
The Dane Kevin Magnussen, Hülkenberg’s teammate, was regarding to suffer the same fate as the German at the start of the second test, in which he spun and brushed past a wall. But in the end, the second red flag of the day ended up causing it, also without suffering any damage, Leclerc, Sainz’s teammate; that damaged the front end of his car following crashing in turn 7.
Alonso, who already had the award for the best overtaking of the month of March – the one he gave Hamilton in Bahrain – received the award for the best overtaking of the month of April in Miami: the one he took on Sainz in Baku, last Sunday.
The brilliant Asturian driver was behind the Red Bulls and the Ferraris in the time table -seven tenths behind ‘Mad Max’-, in which the eccentric and spectacular Stevenage champion was seventh -nine-: just behind his compatriot Lando Norris, author of the sixth time of the day with his McLaren.
The Canadian Lance Stroll, Alonso’s new teammate, finished eighth, an exact second behind the World Cup leader; while Russell, the fastest in the first act, did not go beyond fifteenth on the still dirty track in Miami. In which free practice will be completed this Saturday, hours before qualifying, which will order the starting grid for the Sunday race: scheduled for 57 laps to complete a 308.3-kilometre route.
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