Charles Leclerc suffered a painful outing during Friday’s practice session when he crashed into the barriers at turn seven, causing costly damage to his Ferrari.
The shunt came minutes before the ending of the session in what will undoubtedly be a disappointing start to the Miami weekend for the Monegasque.
The early exit from FP2 left Leclerc’s rival Max Verstappen to top the timesheet, with Carlos Sainz coming in second and the Monegasque down in P3.
“There’s not much to talk about. I pushed too much but it’s like that,” Leclerc said.
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“Overall it’s very tricky because there’s only one line and when you get offline there’s really, really poor grip and basically that’s what happened.
“I pushed a bit too much. I lost the rear. Tried to recover from it but I had no grip to turn the car.
“No big damage. Obviously, the front right is gone but apart from that no damage to the rear of the car.”
Looking towards the rest of the weekend, Leclerc seemed positive about Ferrari’s ability to start near the front of the grid again.
Leclerc secured pole position for both the Sprint race and Grand Prix in Azerbaijan, enjoying a comeback for Ferrari after a difficult start to the season.
“Apart from that, I think the feeling is pretty good over one lap,” Leclerc said optimistically.
“Over the race, we are so far behind. Red Bull, again, is in a league of its own. Very, very far in front.
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“In terms of race pace, I don’t think we have any miracle in hand to close the gap. I don’t think we’ll be much closer on Sunday.”
Ferrari is fighting to get back in the title fight after a lacklustre beginning to the year left it in P4 in the Constructors’ race.
In the Drivers’ Standings, Sainz is sat in P5 and Leclerc in P6, both far behind Verstappen’s 93 point lead.