In the first practice at the Miami Grand Prix, George Russell led the way for Mercedes with a time of 0.212 seconds faster than teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Max Verstappen from Red Bull finished in fourth place, with Charles Leclerc from Ferrari overtaking him.
Sergio Perez from Red Bull, who is six points behind Verstappen in the championship, was down in 11th place.
Nico Hulkenberg caused a red-flag period after crashing in his Haas at Turn Three, while Nyck de Vries from Alpha Tauri also had an early accident that ended his session.
Carlos Sainz from Ferrari finished fifth fastest, followed by Pierre Gasly from Alpine and Fernando Alonso from Aston Martin. Russell had an impressive recovery after losing half the session due to a steering problem.
Leclerc and Russell benefited from the best conditions towards the end of the hour, which allowed them to jump ahead of Verstappen. The session was interrupted for nine minutes following Hulkenberg's accident and De Vries also had a spin and hit the wall early in the session.
Perez, who had expressed confidence in maintaining his challenge to Verstappen, was a long way off the pace due to the red flag.
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said that the car had some goodness, but was tricky to unlock, adding that it looked more encouraging than in Baku.
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