Verstappen leads final practice for Miami GP, Leclerc 2nd and Perez 3rd

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Photo: Red Bull Content Pool

Max Verstappen topped final practice for the Miami Grand Prix, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.

Verstappen looks to be in imperious form, with no one able to get near the two time champion so far this weekend.

Perez has struggled with the setup of his car, and sat half a second behind his teammate, with Carlos Sainz in fourth.

An impressive showing followed for Alpine after a tough race in Baku, with Esteban Ocon in fifth, and Pierre Gasly sixth.

Valterri Bottas was a surprise seventh for Alfa Romeo, ahead of Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg in eighth, who has recovered well from an FP1 crash. Alex Albon put in a solid lap for Williams with ninth and George Russell rounded out the top ten in the Mercedes.

Both Aston Martins were shock omissions from the top ten with 12th for Fernando Alonso and 14th for Lance Stroll.

McLaren will be dissapointed with their result, and worried for the rest of the weekend, as Oscar Piastri wound up 18th, and Lando Norris 19th.

Nyck De Vries continues his poor run of form, as he ended up last of the runners in 20th, while Yuki Tsunoda was 16th in the sister car.

It was a relatively uneventful session, although Lando Norris did make a tremendous save in the high speed turn 4 after the rear of the car got loose on him. George Russell also had a moment in the same spot that Charles Leclerc crashed yesterday, but managed to avoid the wall.

Mercedes struggled with lock-ups in turn 17 as Lewis Hamilton had multiple moments there.

The entire field was separated by less than two seconds, something that could be repeated in Qualifying if any lingering wet weather can hold away at 9pm BST.