Esteban Ocon was the lead Alpine in 13th, ahead of Haas’s Kevin Magnussen in 14th. Meanwhile RB’s Yuki Tsunoda ended the session in 15th, having again been outqualified by team mate Ricciardo.
Pierre Gasly’s tough luck in qualifying continued as he failed to escape SQ1, with the Alpine driver set to start from P16 ahead of Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas in P17 and P18 respectively.
It was also a challenging session for Williams. Local driver Logan Sargeant was disappointed to exit in 19th, while team mate Alex Albon ended the session in 20th, having had a lap time deleted that dropped him down from an original position of 16th.
With just one practice hour behind them – and an interrupted one at that, with Leclerc bringing out the red flags early on following a costly spin – the drivers returned to action later on Friday for Sprint Qualifying, with the session deciding the grid for the second Sprint race of the year.
Leclerc was the first to hit the Miami International Autodrome when SQ1 got underway at 1630 local time, seemingly keen to make up for his very limited running earlier in the day due to that aforementioned spin.
There were no surprises with tyre choice as other drivers started to join the Monegasque on track, given that the medium compound is mandatory for the 12-minute opening segment of Sprint Qualifying.
As the clock ticked down, Leclerc may have potentially caused a sharp intake of breath on the Ferrari pit wall after experiencing a small slide at Turn 8. Fortunately the driver managed to keep his car on the circuit as the first timed laps started to come in.
was Verstappen at the top of the timesheets as the segment reached its halfway point, with Piastri just 0.038s behind in the McLaren on a weekend in which the Woking-based squad are running a series of upgrades.
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Elsewhere Alonso survived a kiss with the wall, while Piastri was left irked after encountering the slow-moving Kick Sauber of Bottas on track, prompting the Finn to complain that he had not been warned in sufficient time. The incident will be investigated after the session.
As SQ1 reached its final moments, Norris slotted into P1 ahead of team mate Piastri, while several drivers worked to get themselves out of danger. The order continued to change as some hauled themselves up the timesheets, but others were unable to improve
Gasly failed to make it through in P16, followed by the Kick Sauber duo of Zhou and Bottas in P17 and P18 respectively. It was also a tough day for Sargeant, who ended the session in P19 in front of his home fans, while fellow Williams driver Albon also exited in P20 after having a lap time deleted.
