Mercedes showed signs of increasing competitiveness as Charles Leclerc set the pace in the first practice at the Miami Grand Prix.
Leclerc was fastest by 0.071 seconds, with George Russell second, an unfamiliar place for the world champion.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen was third.
Lewis Hamilton was struggling with traffic on his best laps and his car was understeer.
A number of drivers made errors as they got to grips with the new street track around the Miami Dolphins Hard Rock Stadium, but none was bigger than that of Valtteri Bottas, who crashed his Alfa Romeo at Turn Eight.
The accident was bad news for his team, who are short of spare parts after problems at the previous race at Imola in Italy.
Carlos Sainz had a big spin at Turns Four and Five, causing a front-right puncture and ruining his set of soft tyres.
While learning the track early in the session, Leclerc had a spin and Verstappen brushed the wall.
Verstappen was struggling with his car overheating in the Florida heat, but the new rear wing of the Ferrari appeared to be the fastest car in the session.
The pace of the Mercedes car and Alexander Albon putting the Williams seventh was striking.
Mercedes have a new lower-drag rear wing for the first time this season.
They wanted this to help reduce the problems they were having with high-speedporpoising, where the car bounces because of under-body airflow disruption.
The first indications are that the experiment has been a success. At least as far as Russell is concerned, Mercedes have looked so easy through a session so far this season.
The front-end grip on Hamilton's car appeared to be a problem.
Red Bull's Sergio Perez was fourth quickest, ahead of Alpha Tauri's Pierre Gasly and Sainz, who had the best time because of his spin.
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