Tag: watch

Carlos Sainz fastest for Ferrari in first Monaco GP practice; Fernando Alonso second for Aston Martin as Lewis Hamilton takes third in updated Mercedes; Max Verstappen struggles to sixth as Red Bull struggle; watch Practice Two live on Sky Sports F1 from 3:45pm on Friday

Carlos Sainz topped first practice at the Monaco Grand Prix for Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton taking an impressive third as Mercedes debuted major upgrades.

Fernando Alonso took second for Aston Martin, while world championship leader Max Verstappen could only manage sixth as Red Bull struggled at Formula 1’s most famous circuit.

The Dutchman’s team-mate Sergio Perez was fourth, heightening hopes for Red Bull’s rivals of ending the reigning constructors’ five-race winning streak to start the season.

Charles Leclerc, who has taken pole for Ferrari for the last two years at his home race, was fifth.

Mercedes, whose W14 hit the track for the first time with long-awaited upgrades, will be buoyed by Hamilton’s third place, but the seven-time world champion’s team-mate George Russell struggled to 15th.

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Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz explains how Mercedes have adapted their car and the potential impact of their upgrades at this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix

As is always the case at the stunning and high-risk street circuit, there was drama and incident, with several drivers escaping contact with the barriers before crashes for Nico Hulkenberg and Alex Albon resulted in red flags.

The latter incident, a heavy shunt for Williams’ Albon at the opening corner Sainte Devote, saw the session come to a premature end with three minutes left on the clock when it occurred.

‘Red Bull have serious competition this weekend’

After the cancellation of last weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix due to severe flooding in northern Italy, there was even greater intrigue than usual as Formula 1 returned to Monaco.

Along with the usual glitz and glamour that Monaco brings to the calendar, there was mystery surrounding Mercedes’ upgrades, and excitement that Ferrari and Aston Martin may be able to outpace Red Bull for the first time this season.

The last element, perhaps the most crucial to ensuring that excitement remains throughout the weekend, looks to be in play, with Sainz and Alonso showing impressive early pace.

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Carlos Sainz, Lando Norris and Lance Stroll all clipped the barriers in first practice in Monaco

Ferrari have shown impressive form at Monaco in recent years, and Sainz’s 1:13.372, which was more than 0.3s clear of Alonso in second, suggests they will be a major threat for pole position on Saturday.

Alonso, who has secured four podiums in his first five races with Aston Martin, has been open about his belief that this weekend he can claim a first F1 victory in more than a decade, and will be encouraged by a solid opening 60 minutes.

After a dominant start to the season which has seen him win three races and amass a 14-point world championship lead over Perez, Verstappen cut an extremely frustrated figure as he struggled from the off and demanded early set-up changes.

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The red flag comes out after Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg clips the barrier in first practice ahead of the Monaco Grand Prix

He reported that his car felt “a little better” afterwards, but was warned over radio that he would have to “live with” the discomfort for the remainder of the session, and was visibly irritated as he failed to make a chicane.

“Red Bull will home in on where they need to be,” Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle said. “The story of FP1 is that Red Bull have got some serious competition this weekend.”

The constant danger of the Circuit de Monaco was highlighted as Hulkenberg lost control of his Haas at the Nouvelle Chicane, spinning, hitting the barrier and suffering a puncture.

The German was able to limp back to the pits but debris left on track led to a brief red flag stoppage to allow the track to be cleared.

Mercedes finally unveil W14 upgrades

All eyes had been on the Mercedes garage since the team began setting up on Thursday morning, with the Silver Arrows finally moving on from the ‘zero-sidepod’ concept they have pursued since the start of last season.

Photos of the new bodywork, which is accompanied by a new floor and front suspension, emerged on Thursday, but the car was finally revealed in full form shortly before practice began on Friday.

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Lewis Hamilton insists he’s happy at Mercedes and downplayed reports of a possible move to Ferrari

Initial assessments were made, but ultimately how the W14 performed on track is what team, drivers, and fans were waiting to see.

The results were somewhat confusing, with Hamilton settling quickly and sitting at the top of the timesheet for a period of the session before finishing third.

In contrast, Russell was uncomfortable from the start, and twice returned to the garage for significant set-up changes.

Despite the changes, he remained uncomfortable, explaining over radio that he was lacking “confidence”.

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George Russell can’t wait to see how his new revamped Mercedes will perform in Monaco with their new upgrades

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin explained to Sky Sports F1 after the session that the British duo had been running different set-ups.

“We haven’t seen major problems which is a useful start to it,” he said. “We were doing some comparisons on set-up across the cars so I think we have a good direction there – Lewis appeared to be in a happier place than George.

“One of the tricky bits with Monaco is the track evolves so much. It’s one thing having the car in a good spot in FP1, you need to keep it there in FP2, FP3 and into Qualy. That’s a lot easier said than done. It’s a good start but we’re certainly wary of the many ways you can get Monaco wrong.”

Sky Sports F1’s Martin Brundle delivers his expert verdict on the Miami GP weekend as Max Verstappen continued Red Bull’s perfect start to 2023 and Sir Jackie Stewart starred as a chaperone on another chaotic grid walk…

I enjoyed the Miami Grand Prix. There was an (almost) race-long intrigue as to which Red Bull driver would take victory, at least until Max Verstappen put in a blistering stint to ensure he won the race for the team’s fourth one-two of this season in five races.

Further down we saw great wheel-to-wheel action including some very decent overtakes, not least George Russell in the Mercedes on Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari.

Throughout the rest of the field the competition is so close that it looks desperate at times in both Qualifying and the race, and also so entertaining. Of course, if it’s not for victory or even the podium then we lose some of that impact.

Kevin Magnussen, my driver of the day, started a remarkable fourth in his Haas team’s home country and finished 10th in an aggressive style not least when counter-attacking the works Ferrari of Charles Leclerc.

There were lots of lunges and overtakes offline into turns one, 11 and 17, and the fact that despite the 210+ mph top speeds and the confines of a street circuit, all 20 cars and drivers finished the race is something to celebrate rather than criticise. Having no Safety Car or red flag of any kind did rather take away a key variable I must concede.

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Highlights of the Miami Grand Prix at the fifth race of the season.

Verstappen makes most of Red Bull’s irresistible speed

It’s a pity that Red Bull breached the cost cap regulations last year because it’s too easy for some to try to minimise what they are achieving now. They are dominant, and it’s for the other teams and drivers to do a better job.

With the DRS rear wing open the Red Bull is fundamentally much faster in top speed than the other nine teams, so much so that I suspect that wherever they start on the grid, and given no outside factors, they can finish one-two. Their speed is simply irresistible and that’s where the other teams must focus. It won’t be easy, that’s an overall car design philosophy rather than an update, and even then, only after they’ve understood what Red Bull are doing to dump so much drag.

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Watch all of Max Verstappen’s overtakes at the Miami GP as he went from ninth to first place.

A cautious Verstappen even lost a place on the opening lap, dropping to 10th, fully aware that he’d cruise past the pack in relatively short order as soon as DRS was enabled, and using his prodigious, metronomic speed and tyre management thereafter.

Of course, I’d rather there were at least two teams fighting for the victories, that would be much better, but believe me when I say that Murray Walker and I would have killed for that much race action 25 years ago in the commentary box on many occasions.

That doesn’t mean to say we shouldn’t focus on improving the racing and I am concerned that the 2023 cars, loaded with ever more downforce, are not helping in that respect.

The Red Bull DRS success creates another fundamental issue in that they simply breeze past the opposition as I’ve described above, but shortening the length of the DRS zones (based on 2022 data) is not helping the rest of the field make passes. Quite a dilemma but nothing the FIA can really do there, the other teams simply must catch up.

Alonso stars on Sunday again | Leclerc must stop crashing

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Charles Leclerc had a massive crash in his Ferrari towards the end of Q3, bringing out the red flag and in the process handing pole to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

Saving the day to an extent is Aston Martin in general and Fernando Alonso in particular. His fourth podium of the season was a gem, and a classy performance to be comfortably the best of the rest after the Red Bull bandits. And who doesn’t like a happy and on-form Alonso?

George Russell was another contender for driver of the day in my book, he really raced well, and Mercedes found some race form to underline his performance.

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Anthony Davidson was at the SkyPad to look at how George Russell managed to finish fourth in Miami after starting the race in sixth.

Ferrari are struggling for race pace and a distant fifth and seventh was a poor result for them. Leclerc must stop crashing his car, it’s holding him and the team back. There are always knock-on effects during a race weekend from those incidents, and he needed a new aero underfloor after the Qualifying crash which may have contributed to the bouncing and issues he reported in the race.

He is unbelievably fast and committed, and he can afford to trade a fraction of that to build a better race weekend, and so a better season. He must lead the team to higher things and not keep the repair shop so busy.

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Fernando Alonso plays padel, reveals his retirement plans and what it’s like competing for pole position near the end of his career.

The Alpine team had a solid weekend in eighth and ninth which was a light relief for them after so much damage in Australia and Azerbaijan, and not least after the Alpine CEO Laurent Rossi gave them all a massive public lashing. There’s an awful lot of pressure in all the teams which are not Red Bull, and that’s how it will remain.

Let’s politely ignore McLaren’s horrendous weekend, I really don’t know what’s going on with that car and clearly nor do they currently. Lando Norris is outwardly handling it very well and with great loyalty, and Oscar Piastri is doing the only thing he can in chasing Lando hard.

Sir Jackie’s starring role on grid walk

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Sir Jackie Stewart defies security guards (and George Russell) to grab Roger Federer to make him speak to Martin Brundle…

The new grid procedure introducing the drivers one by one didn’t do much for me, but then it’s not aimed at me. We have an incremental and new audience in F1 from an altogether different demographic, and F1 is right to try new things. It must be said that the drivers had already been on a parade lap by then in open-top cars.

Also, I felt the long preamble took away from the compulsive energy as 20 cars leave the pit lane at the green light at the same time hundreds of skilled people and piles of high-tech equipment head to the crucible of the grid. We need to keep that at fever pitch where possible until the race starts.

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Rapper LL Cool J introduces the starting grid at the Miami Grand Prix.

The grid walk was the usual chaos, I really don’t know how that happens as nothing is planned, but Sir Jackie Stewart was the absolute star. He’s 83 but decided that he personally would immediately get Roger Federer out of a roped-off zone for an interview with me. I became rather concerned for him as the saga unfolded and security guards and George Russell got dragged into it too.

Meanwhile, I was getting a ‘hard countdown’ in my ear to throw to the LL Cool J driver introductions, but we got our man Roger in the end, and he was pure quality.

MB

Max Verstappen produced a stunning recovery from ninth on the grid to beat team-mate Sergio Perez to victory as Red Bull’s dominance continued at the Miami Grand Prix.

A Verstappen error in Qualifying saw pole-sitter Perez gifted a chance to claim a victory that would have given him the world championship lead, but the Dutchman produced a scintillating drive to win by five seconds and extend his advantage to 14 points.

Verstappen took just 15 laps to charge into second, and was able to outpace Perez as the pair drove on opposite strategies, eventually passing the Mexican with nine laps remaining.

“It was a good race,” Verstappen said. “I stayed out of trouble at the beginning, had a clean race, picked off the cars one by one and I could stay out really long on the hard tyre.

“I think that’s where we made the difference today and then a good little battle with Checo at the end.

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Watch all of Verstappen’s overtakes as he goes from ninth to first place.

“Yesterday was a bit of a setback, but today we kept it calm and clean, and winning a race from P9 is always very satisfying.”

Fernando Alonso, who started second, drove a solid yet lonely race to claim his fourth third-place in five outings for Aston Martin.

George Russell was fourth as Mercedes showed improved race pace after a disappointing Saturday, finishing ahead of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz.

Having started in 13th after a poor Qualifying display, Lewis Hamilton also took advantage of the improved W14 to take sixth, completing a late pass on the other Ferrari of Charles Leclerc to seal the position.

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Lewis Hamilton hits Nico Hulkenberg at the start of the Miami Grand Prix.

Alpine completed a solid weekend as Pierre Gasly finished eighth, a place ahead of team-mate Esteban Ocon, while Kevin Magnussen took the final point for Haas after starting fourth.

Red Bull have now won all five races of the 2023 season, with one-twos in four of them, and lead Aston Martin by 122 points at the top of the constructors’ standings.

Miami GP Race Result
1) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
2) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
3) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
4) George Russell, Mercedes
5) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
6) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
7) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
8) Pierre Gasly, Alpine
9) Esteban Ocon, Alpine
10) Kevin Magnussen, Haas

Verstappen offers reminder of class

Verstappen had made an error on his first flying lap attempt in the final part of Qualifying on Saturday, before being denied the chance to complete his second as Leclerc crashed out.

Up until that point, the Dutchman had appeared in a league of his own at the Miami International Autodrome, and that form returned on Sunday as he produced a faultless display.

Starting from ninth, Verstappen was careful to avoid danger in the opening stages, before producing a brilliant double-overtake on Magnussen and Leclerc to jump up to sixth.

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Verstappen overtakes Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to claim first place.

From there, he eased past Russell, Gasly, Sainz and Alonso to move into second on lap 15, and crucially was just four seconds behind Perez, who had failed to open up a more significant advantage as Verstappen made his way through the field.

While it was apparent that Verstappen was simply quicker than Perez all weekend, the Dutchman appeared to benefit from the team’s decision to split their drivers’ strategies.

While Perez, along with the rest of the top seven, started on medium tyres, Verstappen was one of seven drivers to start on the harder compound, leaving the pair to run their one-stop strategies in reverse order.

That meant that Perez, who was struggling to take care of his mediums early in the race, pitted on lap 20 to switch to hard tyres, giving up the lead to Verstappen.

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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen reflects on victory at Miami after climbing up from P9 to P1.

For a long period the race seemed set for a grandstand finish as the margin remained around 16 seconds, four seconds less than the time Verstappen would need to complete his pit stop.

The pendulum seemed to be swinging in Perez’s favour as he closed to inside 14 seconds, but an error from the Mexican that saw him go off track at Turn 7 opened up the gap once more.

That meant when Verstappen eventually came in at the end of the 45th circuit of the 57-lap contest, he was immediately on the tail of Perez, and armed with fresh medium tyres.

Perez was powerless to hold off his team-mate, and despite his best efforts, Verstappen completed a move into the first corner of lap 48, before easing into the distance.

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Red Bull driver Sergio Perez pays homage to teammate Max Verstappen for being the stronger driver and taking victory at the Miami Grand Prix.

A sprint and race double for Perez in Azerbaijan last weekend had left the Mexican convinced he was ready to sustain a season-long title battle with his team-mate, but Verstappen’s performance on Sunday offered a reminder of who the clear top dog at Red Bull is.

“I gave it all,” Perez said. “I think the first stint was really poor with the graining we had and that compromised quite a lot of the race because we didn’t have too much of a difference.

“It is a well deserved win (for Max).

“I think the medium initially was really poor and that was unexpected. That really compromised our pace and I also think Max had tremendous pace on the hard tyres.”

Alonso scores podium, Mercedes improve, Ferrari struggle

With the battle between Verstappen and Perez understandably stealing the show, Alonso’s typically composed display snuck somewhat under the radar.

Early in the race he appeared to be in a tussle with fellow Spaniard Sainz for third.

They were closely matched until Sainz came in on lap 18 in an attempt to pull off an undercut, but the plan was ruined by the fact a lock up the way in meant he was guilty of breaking the pit lane speed limit, and consequently given a five-second penalty.

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Anthony Davidson takes a look at why Carlos Sainz received a five second penalty at the Miami Grand Prix.

As it was, on the hard tyres they switched to, Alonso had far too much pace and soon eased past Sainz, whose undercut had been successful, before simply managing his tyres to the end as he came home 20 seconds behind Perez.

Alonso remains third in the drivers’ standings, 19 points clear of Hamilton, his nearest challenger to be best of the rest behind Red Bull.

“The car is amazing and it was a bit of a lonely race today,” Alonso said. “It’s never easy, but it was a lonely race.

“Everything was fine, we take the podium, and going into Imola, Monaco and Barcelona we hope to keep going.

“At the beginning of the year a podium was amazing, but now we want more.”

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Fernando Alonso reacts to Lance Stroll’s Alex Albon overtake.

For Sainz, it turned out that he didn’t have enough pace to stay in front of Russell either, with the Mercedes passing the Ferrari on lap 38.

Mercedes’ speed advantage over Ferrari would be emphasised once more as Hamilton passed Leclerc to move up to sixth with two laps remaining.

While it was Mercedes who had been left downcast after a poor Qualifying showing, it’s Ferrari who will leave Miami more disappointed.

The new floor they brought to Miami appears to have failed to make a significant impact, and there will be huge pressure on the team when they return home to Italy for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in two weeks’ time.

Hamilton, who like Verstappen began the race on hard tyres, produced a patient drive to reap the rewards of being on the medium compound in the closing stages, producing several late passes to minimise the damage of his Qualifying display.

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Anthony Davidson was at the SkyPad to look at how George Russell managed to finish fourth in Miami after starting the race in sixth.

Imola is also set to be a significant race for Mercedes, who will bring major upgrades that they hope will at least close the gap to Red Bull.

After a disastrous weekend in Baku, Alpine were finally able to take advantage of the updates they brought to Azerbaijan, with Gasly and Ocon point-scoring performances offering some respite for team principal Otmar Szafnauer following heavy criticism from chief executive Laurent Rossi.

There was no such let up for McLaren, with Lando Norris 17th and rookie team-mate Oscar Piastri 19th as their hugely disappointing campaign continued.

Also disappointed to miss out on points was Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, who was unable to recover from Qualifying 18th as he finished 12th.

Star-studded Miami here to stay on F1 calendar

If there was any shortage of drama in the race, with no Safety Cars, red flags or retirements, the star-studded build-up more than made up for it.

Some of the biggest names in sport flocked to Florida as Miami hosted F1 for the second time after debuting last year, with Roger Federer, Serena Williams and Patrick Mahomes just a few of those in attendance.

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Rapper LL Cool J introduces the starting grid at the Miami Grand Prix.

While traditionalists might not have loved it, musician LL Cool J’s pre-race introductions were certainly something different and embraced by the thousands in attendance.

Formula 1 continues to search for the right balance between adding new venues and keeping historic circuits on the calendar, but Miami looks to have established itself as one of the sport’s destination races.

What’s next?

There’s a brief pause for breath before Formula 1 returns to Europe for a triple-header of back-to-back races.

The first of those is the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola from May 19-21, with Mercedes and Ferrari expected to bring significant upgrades which they hope will move them closer to Red Bull.

All eyes will be on Ferrari at the first of their two home races this season, with the team’s inconsistent start to the campaign likely to come under major scrutiny in front of the tifosi.

Lewis Hamilton to start Miami GP from 13th after suffering Q2 exit; Hamilton unhappy with timing of when Mercedes sent him out to do final qualifying lap; Toto Wolff labels W14 a nasty piece of work; watch Miami GP live on Sky Sports F1 at 8:30pm Sunday

Lewis Hamilton says Mercedes need to get better with their qualifying strategy decisions after suffering a Q2 exit at the Miami GP on Saturday.

The seven-time world champion suffered his worst qualifying result on American soil and will start 13th on Sunday.

Both Hamilton and George Russell had found themselves in the drop zone for long periods of Q1 and Q2 and while Russell scraped into the top-10 shootout by 0.052s and will start sixth, Hamilton faced an early exit.

The Briton had a scruffy start to his final attempt and Hamilton said being sent out as one of the final cars to cross the line meant he was unable to prepare his car and tyres as required and believes Mercedes need to react better to not having a car guaranteed of reaching the final stages.

“When you’re fast you can be more sat back, more relaxed, you can go at the last minute and take your time. You know you’re likely to make it easily into Q3,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.

“We knew it was very hard and there was a 50:50 chance we could get into Q3 so we need to be better with our timing.

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Lewis Hamilton could only go 13th fastest as he failed to make it into Q3 for the first time in the United States

“It’s done, I’ll try and get my head down [on Sunday] and see what I can do – 13th to God knows where.”

Hamilton had entered qualifying day with “no expectations” after being disheartened by how far off Mercedes were to Red Bull on Friday.

His qualifying session began strangely when he hit the wall and damaged his front wing on a slow lap when taking evasive action to avoid Kevin Magnussen’s Haas.

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Lewis Hamilton clipped the wall in his Mercedes in the first part of qualifying in Miami

“It was a difficult session. We’re not that quick so we really needed perfect laps but it was difficult to get into a rhythm, at the beginning I had that issue with the car gong slow in the last corner,” Hamilton continued.

“It was a couple of decent moments in there where I thought the car was good – the Q1 end of the run time was not too bad.

“We were at the back end of the top 10 of course and the last run I was the last of the pack and trying to get the temperatures into the tyres. I was at the back of the queue and everyone slowed into the last corner and I lost all temperatures and couldn’t do the lap.”

Lewis Hamilton suffered a Q2 exit at the Miami GP

Wolff: This car is a nasty piece of work

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff conceded the team had made a mistake sending Hamilton out for his final Q2 lap when they did.

He said they cannot understand what is making the W14 such a “nasty piece of work”.

“There is not a lot to say [to Lewis]. The car is simply not fast enough and putting him in a situation on his out lap where the driver isn’t able to prepare their tyres makes it even worse,” said Wolff.

“Nobody makes a mistake on purpose, we’re trying to give them the best position. We have in the past got it wrong many times and got it right many times. Today [Saturday] for George and Lewis that really went south and you can see in his first sector that the car simply wasn’t there.

“If things go bad, they compound bad. This happened for him and for all of us as a team. I take no enjoyment from finishing sixth because probably it was eighth or seventh. And even if it was fifth I took no enjoyment either because it’s a lack of comprehension of what it is that makes this car such a nasty piece of work.”

Russell: Sixth place flatters us

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George Russell believes he maximised what he could achieve after qualifying sixth around Miami International Autodrome

Russell’s sixth position was helped by Max Verstappen failing to set a time in the final segment after a mistake on his first run and Charles Leclerc also making a mistake on his first run before crashing out which prevented anyone completing a second attempt.

He was outqualified by Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Russell admitted P6 was more than Mercedes’ performance deserved.

“I wouldn’t necessarily say quite pleased, of course I’ll take the result, it’s a very flattering result for the performance that we showed,” Russell told Sky Sports F1.

“I did a really decent lap in Q2 to just scrape through, just to get into Q3 and that’s not where we should be.

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Charles Leclerc had a massive crash in his Ferrari towards the end of Q3, bringing out the red flag and in the process handing pole to Red Bull’s Sergio Perez

“Everybody is working so, so hard to bring more performance to the car, it’s definitely not for a lack of effort and it’s just not coming to us at the moment.

“Lots to think about, a few questions that need answering, tomorrow is a new day and we’ll see what we can do.”

Russell is hoping Mercedes’ trend of having a stronger race car will continue on Sunday, where rain could also be a factor in Miami.

“I hope so, it’s a theme of us that we generally have a better Sunday than Saturday,” Russell said.

“Obviously got the Alpine and Haas around us, hopefully we can get past them, Ferrari tend to struggle a bit more on Sunday.

“We’ll focus on [Sunday], but we need to think about the bigger picture and how we’re gonna bring that fight to the guys at the top.”

The Formula 1 season continues with the Miami GP – watch Sunday’s race live on Sky Sports F1 from 7pm, lights out at 8.30pm. Get Sky Sports

Lewis Hamilton says it was a “kick in the guts” for Mercedes to be so far behind Red Bull at the end of Friday practice and is going into qualifying day at the Miami GP with no expectations.

Signs had initially looked promising for Mercedes after George Russell led Hamilton in a surprise one-two in Practice One, albeit their times being set when track conditions were at their best.

But Friday afternoon saw Mercedes’ difficulties return as Hamilton finished the session seventh, 0.928s off Max Verstappen’s leading time and behind Fernando Alonso and Lando Norris as well as the two Ferraris and Red Bulls. Russell, meanwhile, ended up 15th.

“We’re not particularly quick and it’s a struggle out there,” Hamilton said on Friday evening.

“We’re trying lots of different things. P1 looked quite good and then to come into P2 and the true pace came out – it’s a kick in the guts.

“It’s difficult to take sometimes but it’s OK, we’ll keep on working on it and we’ll regroup tonight and see if we can make some set-up changes and get the car in a sweeter spot.”

He added: “I’m trying to stay positive with it and we’re working as hard as we can. It’s just we’re dying, desperately need those upgrades for sure.

“Just got to keep our head down for one more race and then hopefully we’ll start a new path next race.”

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Lewis Hamilton first set the fastest time in opening practice before Mercedes teammate George Russell went even quicker towards the end of the session.

A year ago, Mercedes topped a Friday practice session at the inaugural Miami GP before Russell suffered a Q2 exit and Hamilton could only manage sixth in qualifying on Saturday.

And the seven-time world champion is just hoping to be part of Q3 given the difficulty he is having with the W14 this weekend.

“I don’t have expectation. The car I just hope I can get it into a better place tomorrow. I hope we can be in Q3 and if we can be mid-bunch of that top 10 that would be great,” Hamilton said.

“Melbourne was night and day difference, much much nicer to drive there. Baku felt better than here also. Maybe it’s the heat or maybe it’s the balance we have at the moment.

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Sky F1’s Anthony Davidson reviews Practice Two ahead of the Miami Grand Prix.

“I’m going to stay optimistic and I’m going to stay hopeful that we can get the car in a better place tomorrow and maybe be a couple of steps up.

“But it feels like, apart from last year we had large-scale bouncing, it generally feels like we’re racing pretty much the same car and that’s the difficult thing.”

Russell: We can still get ahead of Ferraris, Astons

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George Russell is confident Mercedes can still be the second-quickest team behind frontrunners Red Bull at the Miami Grand Prix.

Russell’s difficult second session saw him at one point complain that his car felt like it was “three-wheeling” through Turn Two.

The 25-year-old believes he and the team understand why he struggled on his soft tyre attempts on Friday and retains hope that Mercedes can still get ahead of the Ferraris and Aston Martins come race day.

“It’s fine margins,” Russell said.

“If we get things right, there’s no reason why we can’t be ahead of Ferrari and Aston Martin – that’s the aim.

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George Russell had to take to the run-off area during second practice, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had a dig at previous employers Alpine over team radio.

“I think we’ve seen in these first four races now it’s really tight between those three teams, so if only that was for the win and pole position, it would be exciting. But it’s good because it shows if we can get things right, we can be rewarded and jump ahead of them.

“I think we need to make some improvements overnight. We know we’ve got the potential because we saw it in FP1 and we saw it at the start of FP2, but for sure we just need to get things aligned.”

Max: I always felt good | Perez: I’ve not driven well

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Red Bull driver Max Verstappen reflects on a positive practice day at the Miami Grand Prix.

Friday saw contrasting fortunes for the two Red Bull drivers and title rivals.

Verstappen, who leads Sergio Perez by six points in the championship heading into the weekend, had dominated Practice One until the late laps from the two Mercedes and Charles Leclerc usurped him, but still finished over a second ahead of his team-mate.

The Dutchman was then nearly half a second ahead of Perez in the afternoon session as he stamped his authority on the weekend.

“I think it was a good day. Initially I think it was getting used to the track a bit with the new tarmac, I think it was ramping up a lot throughout the day,” Verstappen said.

“I always felt good in the car and we had good balance.

“Most importantly today I think we had a good balance in the car to start with, so I felt happy. There’s still a few little things we want to look at.”

Perez admitted he needed to improve over the remainder of the weekend.

“I haven’t had the greatest of Fridays but my lap was also pretty bad where I locked up on the final corner,” Perez said.

“I think there is quite a bit to come together with my driving. I don’t think I drove well today, so if I can improve my driving and get myself a bit more comfortable I’ll be all right.”

Leclerc on P2 crash: I pushed too much

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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had a heavy collision with the wall as a red flag was brought out during P2.

Leclerc finished third in both of Friday’s practice sessions, but his afternoon running was curtailed 10 minutes early in the second of those when he crashed into the barriers after losing control at Turn Seven, bringing out the red flag.

Ferrari are running an upgraded floor and diffuser in Miami but the rear of the car escaped undamaged in the crash.

Leclerc said the crash was due to pushing too hard and struck a defeatist tone about the chances of reeling in Red Bull on Sunday.

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Charles Leclerc crashed his Ferrari in P2 and isn’t optimistic about challenging Red Bull for the win in Sunday’s race.

“I pushed a bit too much lost the rear, tried to recover from it, but I had no grip to recover the car. There was no damage to the rear of the car, which is the most important, and tomorrow is another day,” Leclerc said.

“Apart from that I think the feeling is pretty good over one lap, but over the race we are so far behind. Red Bull is again in a league of it’s own, but very far in front so in the race we have a lot of time to find. In qualifying, we are more or less there.”

Sky Sports F1’s live Miami GP schedule

Saturday
5.15pm: Miami GP Practice Three (session starts 5.30pm)
8pm: Miami GP Qualifying build-up
9pm: Miami GP Qualifying
10.45pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday
7pm: Grand Prix Sunday Miami GP build-up
8.30pm: THE MIAMI GRAND PRIX
10.30pm: Chequered Flag Miami GP reaction
11.30pm: Ted’s Notebook

The Formula 1 season continues with the Miami GP this weekend. Watch qualifying at 9pm on Saturday with lights out at 8.30pm on Sunday. Get Sky Sports

Sergio Perez produced a flawless drive to beat Max Verstappen to victory at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after an intense battle between the Red Bull team-mates.

After both Red Bulls made light work of passing the Ferrari of pole-sitter Charles Leclerc – who finished third – in the opening stages, an early Safety Car caused by Nyck de Vries crashing enabled Perez to leapfrog Verstappen as both made pit stops.

Red Bull pitted Verstappen, who was under heavy pressure from Perez, while De Vries was stranded on the track, but the Safety Car being sent out moments later meant Perez gained timed – and the lead – when he stopped a lap later.

The victory reignites Perez’s hopes of denying Verstappen a third successive drivers’ title, with the dominant RB19 appearing to be in league of its own in 2023, with the pair having now claimed two victories apiece across the first four races of the season.

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Nyck de Vries stops on the track and Verstappen comes in before the Safety Car to lose time

Perez, who also won Saturday’s Sprint as Formula 1 debuted its new format for 2023, now trails Verstappen by just six points going into next weekend’s Miami Grand Prix.

Despite having taken a stunning pole on Friday – and on Saturday for the Sprint – Leclerc was never expected to be able to compete with the Red Bulls on Sunday, and produced a strong drive to keep Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso behind him to claim a first podium of the season.

Carlos Sainz completed an improved weekend for Ferrari by finishing fifth, ahead of Lewis Hamilton who recovered from losing several places when pitting before the early Safety Car to take sixth.

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Lewis Hamilton capitalises on a Lance Stroll mistake to move into sixth position at the Azerbaijan GP

Lance Stroll got away with making significant contact with the wall with his Aston Martin to take seventh ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell, whose early progress was ruined by a poor restart after the Safety Car.

Lando Norris, who like Hamilton lost places after pitting early, fought back to finish ninth for McLaren, while Yuki Tsunoda finished in the points for a second successive race by taking 10th for AlphaTauri.

Azerbaijan GP Race Result
1) Sergio Perez, Red Bull
2) Max Verstappen, Red Bull
3) Charles Leclerc, Ferrari
4) Fernando Alonso, Aston Martin
5) Carlos Sainz, Ferrari
6) Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes
7) Lance Stroll, Aston Martin
8) George Russell, Mercedes
9) Lando Norris, McLaren
10) Yuki Tsunoda, AlphaTauri

Perez and Verstappen on the podium in Baku

Perez takes control after early drama

Despite Leclerc starting on pole, the feeling before the race was that the real battle would be between the Red Bulls lining up behind him.

That did not take long to come to fruition, with Verstappen easing past the Ferrari at the end of the third lap once Red Bull’s dominant DRS was unleashed.

Perez followed his team-mate through at the same spot two laps later, before setting about chasing down Verstappen.

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Verstappen and Fernando Alonso make overtakes after the Safety Car restart

The Mexican’s street-circuit pedigree was on display as he immediately closed within a second of Verstappen, and was right on his team-mate’s rear wing when De Vries’ incident occurred on lap 10.

The AlphaTauri struck the inside wall as he took on Turn 5 and damage to his left-front tyre left him stranded at Turn 6.

With yellow flags waving, Red Bull called Verstappen in, but no sooner had he emerged from the pits, the Safety Car was sent out, benefitting all the cars that had yet to stop.

Perez would come out in the lead after his stop a lap later, while Leclerc also got back in front of Verstappen, providing the Mexican with an extra cushion at the rolling restart.

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Perez struggled with Turn 15 as he hit the wall

It would not last long, as Verstappen immediately got past Leclerc, but Perez quickly opened up a second gap to move out of DRS range, and then maintained the advantage for the rest of the race.

There was a momentary scare as Perez hit the wall at Turn 15 on the 34th circuit of the 51-lap contest, but he escaped any damage and was able to comfortably bring the RB19 home with a two-second lead.

Perez’s victory makes him the first driver to win twice at the Baku City Circuit in F1, while also furthering his reputation around street tracks, where five of his six wins in the sport have now come.

Leclerc seals Ferrari podium | Ocon has terrifying near miss

While the rest of the action was somewhat secondary as the key battle played out up front between the Red Bulls, Leclerc backed up his second in Saturday’s Sprint to claim a first podium of the season for Ferrari.

Having come into the season expecting to challenge Red Bull and Verstappen for titles, Ferrari endured a torrid start to the campaign in the first three races, with Leclerc retiring in two of them.

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Verstappen makes short work of overtaking Charles Leclerc for the lead with the help of DRS

While their race pace – along with the rest of the field – remains some way off Red Bull’s, they will take encouragement and hope significant upgrades planned for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola later this month can move them closer to contention.

Alonso did his best to make it four podiums in as many races for 2023’s surprise package Aston Martin, as he pressured Hamilton into an early pit stop before passing Sainz at the restart to gain two places from his starting position.

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De Vries clips the wall and is forced to retire from the Azerbaijan GP

Hamilton recovered well after a slow start to pass Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon having dropped to 10th at the restart, before then making moves on team-mate Russell and Stroll to take sixth.

Ocon, who started from the pit-lane after breaching parc ferme by changing his set-up on Saturday, was involved in a near-disastrous accident in the pit-lane in the closing stages.

Alpine somewhat strangely waited until the final lap of the race to bring Ocon in for a mandatory change of tyres, but race organisers had not realised and allowed photographers to gather at the start of the pit-lane where they were awaiting the top three.

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Esteban Ocon drove into a pit-lane full of people after photographers had begun to enter it before the end of the Azerbaijan GP

Thankfully, the photographers managed to get out of Ocon’s way at the last moment, avoiding a potentially terrible accident.

Despite the near-miss, serious questions will be asked as to how such a dangerous situation was allowed to occur.