McLaren’s Norris wins the Miami Grand Prix for his maiden F1 victory

MIAMI:

McLaren’s Lando Norris won the first Formula One race of his career with a shock victory over world champion Max Verstappen at the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday.

Breathing life into an F1 season that was in danger of becoming a one-man story again, Norris, in his 110th race for McLaren, beat Verstappen by more than seven seconds with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finishing third.

Verstappen, who started on pole, had won four of the first five races of the season and leads the world championship standings.

It looked business as usual for the Dutchman, who had won the previous two Miami races, leading up to lap 24 when he pitted and Norris’ McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri took over the lead.

Australian Piastri himself pitted four laps later, allowing Norris to take the lead and the British driver never looked back.

Crucially, Norris was able to pit during a safety car on lap 30, earning him a valuable time advantage which he never relinquished.

The safety car came after Kevin Magnussen clipped Logan Sargent, sending the American Williams driver into the wall, bringing out a yellow flag.

Norris, who was 15 podiums shy of his maiden win, took full advantage of the safety car and with Verstappen struggling to catch up, secured his maiden win.

It was the first time Verstappen had been beaten on track when he finished the race since Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won in Singapore last September.

Norris was hoisted into the air by McLaren mechanics as his long wait for a victory in the sport came to an end.

“About time huh?” said Norris, “I knew on Friday we had the pace…today we were able to put it together. We had the perfect strategy, everything paid off,” he added.

“I guess a lot of people doubted me along the way. I made a lot of mistakes in the last five years, my short career, but today we put it all together, so it’s all about the team.

“I stuck with McLaren because I could believe in them and I believed in them and today I proved just that,” he added.

The closest Norris had previously come to winning a Grand Prix was in Sochi, Russia in 2021, when he led in the closing stages before failing to make an early tire change in the rain, costing him dearly.

Verstappen, who had complained of a lack of grip in qualifying and during Sunday’s race, said his Red Bull was unable to keep up with Norris when the McLaren driver switched to hard tyres.

“They just had more pace, Lando was flying. It’s been incredibly difficult for us, but on the bad P2 days, I’m going to get it right?

“I’m very happy for Lando, it’s been a long time and it won’t be his last. He definitely deserves it,” said the Dutchman.

Leclerc echoed those sentiments.

“Very often he was running very close but for one reason or another he didn’t make it. But today he did an incredible job and all weekend he was in it,” said the Ferrari driver.

Sainz finished fourth with Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez in fifth, but the pair swapped places after stewards handed the Spaniard a five-second post-race penalty for his collision with Piastri.

Mercedes pair Lewis Hamilton and George Russell finished sixth and eighth with Japanese RB driver Yuki Tsunoda finishing seventh.

As with the first two years of the Miami Grand Prix, held around Hard Rock Stadium, home of the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, the race attracted many celebrities.

Former French international footballer and coach Zinedine Zidane, singer Ed Sheeran, Super Bowl winner Patrick Mahomes and former US president Donald Trump were among those spotted at the game. Trump visited the McLaren garage before the race.