Championship leader Charles Leclerc edged out the Mercedes of George Russell to set the quickest time in first practice for the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.

The Ferrari driver bolted on a set of the soft Pirelli compound tyres to clinch top spot, just 0.071s clear of Russell, whose Mercedes featured a suite of upgrades including a new low downforce rear wing, revised front wing and beam wing.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who has won two of four races this season, was briefly top of the charts but skimmed the wall on a green track and spent a fair chunk of the session in the garage. He ended up third quickest, 0.179s off the pace.

Verstappen’s team mate Sergio Perez was fourth, ahead of the leading AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly – who is onto his third internal combustion engine (with a further change triggering a penalty) – with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz failing to get a soft tyre time on the board after he picked up a puncture courtesy of a big lock up into Turn 1.

Williams’ Alex Albon was a very impressive seventh, around a tenth of a second clear of Lewis Hamilton, who had to abort his soft tyre run when he was baulked by traffic.

Kevin Magnussen (P9) and Daniel Ricciardo, who had a close encounter when the latter exited the pit lane at the same time Haas driver Magnussen was passing by on a hot lap, completed the top 10.