Tap against wall costs De Vries new gearbox

Another setback for Nyck de Vries. The troubled AlphaTauri driver had a spin in the first free practice session, hitting the wall with the back of his car. In the process, De Vries' gearbox was damaged, and it therefore had to be replaced. It has since been reported to the FIA that a new gearbox from his pack has been installed.

So De Vries will not get a grid penalty for the change. The gearbox had been put in the car in time to take part in FP2. In that, the rookie finished nineteenth, just under two seconds behind Verstappen. Incidentally, teammate Yuki Tsunoda did not do much better. He came no further than eighteenth place.

Grip level is low

In a press release from his team, De Vries discussed his first metres on the Florida street circuit. "Miami is a unique event and the venue is great, so it feels awesome to be racing in front of the American crowd. It’s a new track for me and grip levels are extremely low, so you get quicker with each lap that you do. Even though the temperature is quite high, tyre warm-up seems to be a challenge because they need a long time before they perform."

So the gap to the front is huge. De Vries thinks there are gains to be made on Saturday. "There is something to find in that area, so we’ll analyse this tonight and hopefully come back stronger tomorrow. Looking at our performance today, we are not where we wanted to be, but we’ll try to put all the pieces together."