Colton Herta tops Formula two’s first ever practice in Miami. Following the cancellations of Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the feeder series arrived at a new circuit for the first time since Qatar 2022. The sole practice session would prove both vital and disrupted.
Herta’s Shows Early Pace on Home Soil
Herta looked to be starting off on the right foot in the early stages. The early laps saw drivers adjusting to the track with Herta getting a purple last sector. The home hero topped the time sheet with a 1:42.33 an early benchmark. The championship leader, Nikola Tsolov, was a few thousandths behind with Dino Beganovic in third.
It was Laurens Van Hoepen, however, who was the one to beat when the virtual safety car came out. The Trident driver went sixth tenths clear of the second place with a 1:41.686
The end of the session saw Herta return to the top with a 1:40.320. He was 16 thousandths ahead of Kush Maini, a promising sign for this afternoon’s qualifying.
A Tough Morning for Campos Racing and Roman Bilinski
Unlike Herta, it wasn’t looking solid for everyone. Bilinski’s Dams Lucas Oil kept him in the garage for majority of the session. The Polish driver was stuck in the garage with what seemed to be an electrical issue. He managed to come out towards the end of the session but failed to do more than one lap on the board leaving him in last and heading into qualifying on the back foot.
The Campos Racing team also suffered a huge lack of running. Both drivers failed to even make it halfway through the session. Noel León spun at low speed before becoming stationary. With the car stranded the virtual safety car was brought out disrupting several drivers on fast laps.
The removal of León’s car only saw the track turn green momentarily. His teammate brought out a red flag a few minutes later. Championship leader Tsolov came to a stop at turn 12. The reason for his stoppage looked to be an issue with the car with the Bulgarian driver going extremely slow before coming to a complete halt.
The lack of running for both cars puts the whole team at a disadvantage. With no data from practice for either, qualifying could prove a challenge.
Finding the Limits
Several drivers appeared to be pushing the limits and testing the grip. Sebastian Montoya found himself collecting the car early on after the rear stepped out coming onto the back straight.
Tasanapol Inthraphuvasak suffered a huge lock up heading into turn one going off track. Gabriele Mini suffered a similar fate testing the limits at the same corner. The white line at the edge of the edge of the braking zone seem to have less grip and saw the Alpine academy driver punish his tires.
Alex Dunne was another driver to suffer from the lack of grip. The Irishman appeared to be ringing the neck of his Rodin to try and get a representable lap. He seemed to have pushed the limit with a lock up down the back straight leaving him to bail and try again.
A Last-Minute Disruption
The closing stages of practice saw Van Hoepen brush the wall after losing the rear. The trident driver caused a yellow flag with damage to his front left. With it being at the end of the session it meant there would be little to no improvement for anyone else.
With no room for improvement, Herta finished the session on top. Holding the fastest middle sector, the American driver will hope to be first again later in qualifying.