Perez is on top at FP3, Leclerc and Verstappen close behind – Formula 1 Miami GP

 

The final practice session of the first edition of the Miami GP went pretty smoothly. Sergio Perez set the fastest time of the session, followed by Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen. He was followed by former Formula 1 world champions Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel.

FP3 CLASSIFICATION 👀

Perez fastest ahead of qualifying #MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/DZ8BqifsIg

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 7, 2022

A hot day in Miami

The temperature on track reached a blistering 50 Degrees celsius as the teams continued to learn just how much their tyres could take.
The cars were sliding around a good amount. Especially the Mercedes car of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton. With Russell complaining over the radio that the tyres are nowhere. 

Ocon into the wall 

However, Estaban Ocon just went a bit too hot and found himself in the same place that Carlos Sainz was yesterday. This brought out the red flag on an otherwise smooth session.  Ocon was taken to the Medical centre as a precaution because the crash was a high G force one. The medical centre gave him an all-clear.

Esteban Ocon’s FP3 comes to an abrupt end 😖#MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/R5VKa7Q88W

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 7, 2022

Max Verstappen too had a close call, stopping his car just inches away from the concrete wall while maneuvering the challenging chicane.

Whoa, that was a close one! 😮

Max manages to stay out of the barriers at the chicane#MiamiGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/LuCv5TPR11

— Formula 1 (@F1) May 7, 2022

The Alpha Tauris finished in 11th Yuki Tsunoda and 16th Pierre Gasly, with Gasly letting his engineers that his car was bouncing around like a kangaroo. 

 

Towards the end of the session, we began to see the cars move towards a qualifying setup and push harder. However it is important to know that the fastest time set today by Perez 1:30.304 is slower than the one set by George Russel yesterday at 1:29.938, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out.