Oscar Piastri tops red-flagged Miami GP practice as Lando Norris faces two trips to the stewards

On-song Oscar Piastri topped the shortened sole practice session for the Miami Grand Prix that proved eventful for McLaren team-mate Lando Norris.

Piastri comfortably led the way with a time of 1:27.128s, more than three-tenths of a second faster than Ferrari's Charles Leclerc, with new father Max Verstappen, following the birth of daughter Lily early this week, 0.430s down in his Red Bull.

With five minutes remaining, however, a spin from Haas' Oliver Bearman out of Turn 11 before sliding into a wall at Turn 12 brought out the red flags and an effective halt to the session.

It prevented Norris from mounting a challenge to Piastri. The Briton had just purpled the middle sector only to abort in the final sector when the session was halted.

As practice sessions go, and considering it was the only one ahead of sprint qualifying, it was not the cleanest for Norris in his bid to enjoy a trouble-free weekend 

Within minutes of the session starting, Norris radioed in that he could feel tools inside his cockpit. "You left so many tools in the cockpit. Everything is just falling apart," he said. On returning immediately to his pit box, the Briton removed two items.

Later in the session, on the approach to the Turn 17 left-hander, Norris encountered the slow-moving Haas of Esteban Ocon. Just as Norris started to turn into the corner. at the same time, Ocon made a move to his left in an apparent bid to get out of the way.

It forced Norris into taking evasive action to avoid a collision, but left him involved in a second post-session investigation with the stewards, as he and McLaren are also charged with the car being in an "unsafe condition" for the tools incident.

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Perhaps understandably, the lead changed hands several times early on until Verstappen posted a more representative time of 1:28.634s on the medium compound that proved to be the tyre of choice early on.

Equally as understandably, it was a lead that did not last long. George Russell, who had complained early on of the steering feeling "exceptionally heavy" on his Mercedes, and of the car generally "feeling so different" compared to his experience of a fortnight ago in Saudi Arabia, powered to the top by just over a tenth of a second.

Whatever had been ailing Russell was further blown away when he improved on a later lap, stretching his advantage by almost an additional four tenths to lower the benchmark to 1:28.058s.

Norris, finally shorn of the tools that had clanked around in the cockpit of his car, managed to get to within a third of a second before Williams' Carlos Sainz moved to within a quarter of a second.

Approaching the half-hour Mark, Russell was joined at the top of the timesheet by team-mate Kimi Antonelli, with the Italian 0.169s off the pace.

Following a degree of long running on the medium tyre for all concerned, with Racing Bull's Liam Lawson the anomaly of the field as his best time was set on the hard compound, it was not until with 15 minutes remaining that drivers started to switch to the softs.

Sainz set the pace on the red-striped rubber with a time of 1:27.678s, 0.277s ahead of team-mate Alex Albon, leaving Russell 0.380s down but yet to turn to the softs.

On his debut outing with the softs, Verstappen briefly took over top spot with a 1:27.558s only to be swiftly knocked off by Leclerc by 0.074s.

The Monégasque's time at the top, however, was also short-lived as Piastri then smashed his way out front by 0.356s, and so he remained out front when the red flags flew for Bearman's spin.

Behind the leading trio were Sainz and Albon, followed by Racing Bull's Isack Hadjar, 0.840s down.

Russell and Antonelli had to settle for seventh and ninth quickest but, like Norris, who finished 12th, they did not bank a soft-tyre time. The duo sandwiched Red Bull's Yuki Tsunoda, who was eighth quickest, a second down.

Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso completed the top 10 ahead of Lawson and Norris, with Lewis Hamilton 13th in his Ferrari, but again with a soft-tyre time to his name.