MIAMI — His week started with a question about a cut on his nose.
It ended with him celebrating on the top step of the podium.
After years of searching, Lando Norris finally enjoyed his day in the sun here at the F1 Miami Grand Prix, making his breakthrough with his first F1 career victory.
McLaren brought a number of upgrades to Miami this week, and those showed promise in the first two sprint qualifying sessions when Norris was on the medium compound. Norris led the timesheets in both SQ1 and SQ2, but struggled in the third session on the softs and dropped down the order, qualifying in ninth place.
His F1 sprint race ended at the first corner on Saturday after he was swept away in a four-car accident that left him with terminal damage to his MCL38.
McLaren was able to prepare the car for qualifying for the Miami Grand Prix later in the day, with Norris again showing decent pace and finishing that session in fifth place. But this Miami Grand Prix ended like so many other races over the past three seasons, as Max Verstappen started from pole position, as if it would be in vain for the rest of the grid to chase Verstappen. It seemed to me.
But things changed on Sunday.
Norris was running 6th in the early stages of the Miami Grand Prix, but continued to show incredible pace as the laps progressed. He set his fastest lap on lap 19 and was running near the front midway through the race.
It was then that Norris, who still needed a mandatory pit stop and tire change, got a much-needed break.
A collision between Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargent sent the Williams driver spinning into the barriers, eventually bringing out the safety car. Thanks to this, Norris was able to pit in ideal conditions and set out hard to get ahead of Verstappen. However, with the Red Bull driver lurking, Norris needed to get a solid restart and get out of DRS range as soon as possible to get through the day.
He did just that.
In the closing stages of the Miami Grand Prix, Norris slowly built a lead and maintained it until the final lap. Verstappen made it clear as he pulled away that he could not chase the McLaren in front of him. “I can’t turn the car around,” Verstappen lamented to his team in the pits. “This is a disaster.”
It was nothing short of a disaster for the McLaren driver, who was reaching the top for the first time in his F1 career.
“Good times!” Norris shouted to Jenson Button at the race track. “What a race. It took a long time but we finally did it. I’m very happy for everyone in the team and I was finally able to contribute to the team. Long day, tough race However, I am very happy that I came out on top in the end.
“The whole weekend was good, just a few setbacks along the way,” Norris continued. “On Friday we just made a few mistakes here and there and we knew we had the pace, but today we managed to put it together. We have the perfect strategy. [together], it all paid off. I would like to thank McLaren and everyone, and of course I would like to send a shout out to my mother and father. ”
Norris was also asked about the team that gave him the chance to race. He did not suppress his gratitude.
“What can I tell them? I’m really proud,” Norris replied. “A lot of people doubted me along the way. I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my short career over the past five years, but today I put it all together. This is all for the team.
“I stuck with McLaren because I could believe in them and I did believe in them. Today proved just that.”
