George Russell went quickest in the second practice session at the Miami Grand Prix on Friday night, as he boosted hopes that Mercedes might have made some progress towards getting back to the front.

The W13 has been a real problem child for the Silver Arrows so far this season with porpoising literally causing Russell and Lewis Hamilton a tonne of headaches.

However, it looked a little smoother for them on Friday at the Miami circuit, with Russell going second quickest in the first session and then fastest of all in the second session.

Behind him, Charles Leclerc continued to look strong by taking P2 whilst Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton were a further tenth back from the Monegasque man in the final classification.

For some of the other front runners, though, it was a more trying session with Carlos Sainz losing control of his car and hitting the wall at the tight turn 14 complex, whilst Max Verstappen saw reliability issues rear their head once again as a hydraulics issue struck, leaving him with steering problems and smoking rear brakes - that would end his session with just under half of it left to run.

The rest of the top ten, meanwhile, saw Fernando Alonso in 5th, Lando Norris in 6th, Pierre Gasly 7th, Zhou Guanyu 8th, Esteban Ocon 9th and Kevin Magnussen in 10th.

george russell miami mercedes

MIAMI, FLORIDA - MAY 06: George Russell of Great Britain driving the (63) Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team W13 on track during practice ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Miami at the Miami International Autodrome on May 06, 2022 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images)

Friday was the first time that the drivers got to take a flying look at the new Miami circuit and it certainly seemed to prove pretty popular which, for all the razzmatazz earlier in the week, is the main thing about this new event.

More practice takes place later this evening at 6pm UK time, before the serious business really begins with qualifying at 9pm UK time, and it looks as though we could have a three-team fight for pole position for the first time this season...