Russell Leads Second Miami Practice but Problems for Sainz and Verstappen

George Russell led the way in second practice for the Miami Grand Prix, with the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team driver setting the pace ahead of Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Times continued to tumble as driver adapted to the new Miami International Autodrome track, with the running not helped by two red flags, one for the crash of Carlos Sainz Jr. and the other for Nicholas Latifi grinding to a halt with an apparent technical issue.

Sainz lost control of his Ferrari at turn thirteen and spun into the barriers, damaging his car and bringing out the red flags for the first time, while Latifi stopped his Williams Racing machine that required a second stoppage while his car was recovered to a safe place.

After his morning crash, Valtteri Bottas was unable to take to the track as his Alfa Romeo F1 Team ORLEN mechanics could not fix his car in time, while reigning World Champion Max Verstappen was restricted to only one lap as he suffered with issues with his Oracle Red Bull Racing machine.

Verstappen only completed fourteen laps in the morning session and will therefore be going into the rest of the weekend on the back foot, the Dutchman yet to have found a rhythm around the FIA Formula 1 World Championship’s newest venue.

At the other end of the times, Russell lowered the track record to a 1:29.938, 0.106 seconds ahead of morning pacesetter Leclerc, while Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez made it three different teams inside the top three, just 0.212 seconds off the pace.

Lewis Hamilton ended fourth, 0.241 seconds behind his Mercedes team-mate Russell, while Fernando Alonso made progress for the BWT Alpine F1 Team as the Spaniard ended fifth, ahead of McLaren F1 Team’s Lando Norris.

Pierre Gasly confirmed that Scuderia AlphaTauri have a good car this weekend in Miami as he followed up his fifth from the morning session with a seventh in the afternoon, just ahead of Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu, while the second Alpine of Esteban Ocon ended ninth ahead of the leading Haas F1 Team driver Kevin Magnussen.

Sainz had been fastest before his crash but tumbled to eleventh by the time of the chequered flag, the Spaniard ending ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, with the second AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda.

It is already appearing to be another tough weekend for the Aston Martin Aramco Cognizant F1 Team as Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll ended only fourteenth and sixteenth fastest respectively, either side of the second Haas of Mick Schumacher.

Alexander Albon couldn’t follow up his seventh place finish in the morning session as the Williams driver ended seventeenth, ahead of team-mate Latifi.

Miami International Autodrome Free Practice 2 Result