Kevin Magnussen led the field early in the race on the medium and hard tires – the Dane setting the benchmark for first place with the yellow-walled rubber with a 1m36.852s.
Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg then prevailed on the medium and hard tyres, respectively, before Lewis Hamilton ended the first five minutes of the hour-long session by being fastest with a time of 1m34.527s.
But that didn’t last long either, as Verstappen – unlike Hamilton, who was using the hard tires at the time – was quickest on his second attempt at a first flyer after getting caught in the runoff at Turn 1 on his first attempt .
The times continued to tumble as the drivers completed their initial reconnaissance runs, with some going off track moments at Turn 1 and Turn 11 at the end of the long, meandering back straight, struggling for grip on the new track surface.
During this time, Nyck de Vries lost the rear of his AlphaTauri and spun right halfway through the long, narrow Turn 12, with Carlos Sainz setting the fastest time of 1m33.823s.
Hamilton then went even faster before Verstappen, still on the same tough courses, clocked a 1m32.465s which he beat with a fourth flying lap attempt to finish the first quarter of the session at 1m31.826s.
Then the field came into the pits and after a short break many drivers switched to the soft tires for the first time, with Hulkenberg being the first to do so, returning to the top of the times with a 1m31.392s just before half-time.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images
When that was over, Verstappen and Perez completed their first runs on the soft, the latter beating Hulkenberg by 1:31.054s, despite catching a big oversteer snap early in the round between the fast corners 4/5 in the flowing section around Hard Rock Stadium.
However, Perez couldn’t beat Hulkenberg at that point and put his Red Bull in third place behind Haas, which then took center stage when Hulkenberg crashed at Turn 3 on a third flying lap attempt on the same softs.
Hulkenberg had been just slightly slower than his personal best on his second softs flyer, ran slightly off the line at Turn 3 and quickly lost the rear of his car, flipping and slamming his right side into the wall and hurling debris over the Route .
As Hülkenberg’s car had to be recovered with the right front wheel smashed, the session was interrupted for eight minutes.
As FP1 resumed ahead of his final quarter, Verstappen returned to action on the softs and improved the benchmark for first place to 1’30.549s – this time completing his flyer without a first sector moment.
Leclerc then moved up to second before being demoted by Sainz a few minutes later, relegating Fernando Alonso to fourth.
In the final five minutes, Leclerc made a second run on his soft shoes and overtook Sainz, still 0.253s slower than Verstappen in front of him, while Sainz’s second attempt had to be aborted very quickly as he lost the rear of his SF-. 23 and had to go into the runoff at Turn 1.
As the Ferraris prepared for a third try on the softs, the Mercedes cars finally had the mediums turned off – Russell lost some time early on when his team decided to take off a development steering section that was deemed too heavy due to its early feedback .
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
After initially staying on the middle distances after the red flag, the Mercedes drivers were pushed down the order and only kept away from the back of the field by de Vries, who hadn’t reappeared after 10 laps of the hard track – least of any driver in FP1.
Hamilton led Russell around and Leclerc also intervened again and the seven-time world champion jumped from 19th to first place with a 1m30.337s.
Leclerc then jumped ahead of Verstappen by 1m30.449s, putting him in second place until Russell completed his softs flyer to also jump from 19th to first, shadowing Hamilton by 1m30.125s.
Sainz’s third soft run set a personal best just before the end of the session, but that couldn’t put him ahead of Verstappen’s fourth place as the Red Bull returned to the hard tires in the final minutes.
Pierre Gasly had a wild moment in the runoff at Turn 3 after catching a big snap late at Turn 2 but finished sixth for Alpine ahead of Alonso.
Lance Stroll followed his Aston Martin teammate in eighth, with Hulkenberg finishing ninth despite an early retirement.
Ocon completed the top 10, with two-time Baku winner Perez finishing just 11th, not picking up speed after his first run on the softs.
Leclerc reported “slow shifting” on his post-checkered flag on his lap.
F1 Miami GP – FP1 Results