George Russell put Mercedes quickest at the end of Friday’s running for the Miami Grand Prix as Carlos Sainz Jnr crashed out of the session.
The Ferrari driver had been sitting atop the timing screens in the second practice session when he lost control and spun into the outside barriers at turn 14, causing significant damage to his car.
Max Verstappen’s difficult day continued with an apparent hydraulics failure leading to a fire on his right-rear wheel on his one and only lap of the session.
The air temperature had only dropped a single degree as the cars ventured out onto the circuit for the second and final Friday session. All runners opted for the medium compound tyres in the early minutes as they looked to gain long run data after acclimatising themselves with the circuit in the earlier session.
Following his first practice crash at turn seven, Valtteri Bottas was forced to sit out the entirety of the session as the Alfa Romeo mechanics continued to rebuild his car.
Gallery: Miami Grand Prix practice in picturesMick Schumacher abandoned his first run of second practice after reporting that the bodywork on the sidepod on his Haas was being lifted by the air flowing over the car at high speed. The problem for Haas compounded itself when Kevin Magnussen began to experience the same damage on the sister car, forcing both to come back to the garage.
Carlos Sainz Jnr set the early pace, clocking a 1’30.964, with Sergio Perez just over half a tenth behind in second. However, Sainz’s promising early performance came to a sudden end when he lost control of his Ferrari on the exit of turn 13 and spinning into the barriers, causing major damage to his car.
The red flags stopped the session as Sainz climbed from his wrecked Ferrari, proceedings stopped for around ten minutes while the wreckage was cleared.
Eventually the session restarted, but Verstappen, who had yet to set a time, immediately reported heavy steering on his Red Bull. As he made his way around the lap,…