Formula 1: George Russell is the fastest in the second Miami GP test and Mercedes is excited

The British George Russell (Mercedes) was the fastest in the first two free practice sessions of the Miami Grand Prix, the season’s fifth Formula 1which will run on Sunday at the Florida circuit.

Russell set the time of 1,29,938 and was joined by the race leader, Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), at 0.106, who was the fastest in the first test.

Then in the column were Mexican Sergio Pérez (Red Bull), Englishman Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes), Spanish Fernando Alonso (Renault-Alpine) and Englishman Lando Norris (McLaren). The reigning champion the Dutch Max Verstappen (Red Bull), had to leave due to hydraulic problems in his vehicle.

This Saturday there will be a rehearsal shift (from 3 to 4 pm, Argentina time) and classification (5 to 6 pm); and on Sunday at 6:30 pm the competition will begin: there will be 57 laps of the circuit, with 5,412 meters of rope, to complete the 308,326 kilometers of the race.

The second rehearsal in Miami, lap to lap

Russell was pleased with Mercedes, who didn’t get off to a good start this season after dominating the previous ones. Behind him closed the Monegasque Charles Leclerc, located at 106 thousandths and finished ahead of Mexican Sergio Pérez, whose Red Bull was 212 thousandths slower than Russell’s era

Another Mercedes, led by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, was 241 thousandths behind his teammate and finished fourth in that session, four spots ahead of the spot he occupied in the first. .

At the start of free practice it was Leclerc who set the pace on Ferrari when turning 1’31 “098, only 71 thousandths of a second faster than Russell and 179 thousandths faster than Dutch world champion Max Verstappen, who in the second session barely lapped

Nine finished Spanish Carlos Sainzthe fastest of them at 1’30 “964 in control of his F1-75 where suffered an oversight that prevented him from improving his time after the sixth in the first heat

In the second session, the track was 10 degrees Celsius colder than the first, which may have been the source of the inconvenience suffered by the Spaniard, who in the last Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix did not complete the first lap.

Considering that drivers will be riding in the ring for the first time on this track, the reference times are pretty relative, so we’ll have to wait and see what happens this Saturday in qualification after the third free session .

In the second, Spanish Fernando Alonso finished for the fifth time (1’30 “372) aboard his Alpine-Renault, ahead of Lando Norris’ McLaren (1’30” 535), who completed the podium in Imola behind Verstappen and Pérez

Frenchman Pierre Gasly set the seventh record (1’30 “547) with Alpha Tauri and Chinese Zhou Guanyu was eighth along with Alfa Romeo (1’30” 860) and finished ahead of fellow Frenchman Esteban Ocon, from Alpine-Renault (1 ’30 “861)

In the back is the Danish Kevin Magnussen, with Haas, Sáinz, Australian Daniel Ricciardo with other McLarenthe Japanese Yuki Tsunoda along with another Alpha Tauri and four-time German world champion Sebastian Vettel, of Aston Martin, in that order