Lando Norris beats Max Verstappen for long-awaited first F1 victory in Miami
Lando Norris claims his maiden F1 victory at the Miami Grand Prix ahead of Max Verstappen.
Lando Norris brilliantly held off Max Verstappen to claim a long-awaited first F1 victory at the Miami Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver capitalised on a fortunately-timed Safety Car to take the lead, before fending off Red Bull’s reigning world champion over the final 25 laps to claim a memorable maiden win.
Verstappen appeared to be in command of the opening stages but the race dramatically swung in Norris and McLaren's favour when Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant crashed on Lap 29, resulting in a Safety Car.
That gave Norris, who started fifth but was in the lead after running longer in the first stint than his rivals, the chance to make a cheap pit stop and crucially return to the track ahead of Verstappen.
Norris maintained the lead at the restart and fired up his fresher hard tyres to pull away from Verstappen, who had won four of the opening five races coming into the Miami weekend.
The 24-year-old Briton impressively controlled the final stages in his upgraded McLaren to secure a redemptive first F1 victory having come so agonisingly close to his maiden win at the 2021 Russian Grand Prix.
Norris had the most podium finishes (14) without a win, but he has finally shaken off that unwanted record to give McLaren just their second victory in the last 12 years, finishing over seven and a half seconds clear of Verstappen.
"About time! What a race. It's been a long time coming. Finally I've managed to do it," Norris said.
"I'm so happy for my whole team. I finally delivered for them. Long day, tough race. Finally on top, so I'm over the moon. The whole weekend has been good. I've had some little setbacks along the way but I knew on Friday we had the pace.
"Just a couple mistakes here and there. Today we managed to put it together. We did the perfect strategy and it all paid off. Thanks to McLaren, everyone. I'll give a shout out to my mum and dad of course."
It marks just the second time this season that Verstappen has not won in 2024, with the only other occasion coming when he failed to finish in Australia.
Charles Leclerc completed the podium in third place ahead of Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz and the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez, who just kept Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes at bay for fifth.
RB's Yuki Tsunoda took seventh ahead of Mercedes' George Russell and Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, who rose from 15th on the grid to ninth.
Esteban Ocon completed the top-10 to give Alpine their first point of a difficult 2024 season.
