After five years and 110 races, Lando Norris is an F1 race winner; McLaren driver inherited lead under Safety Car but then blew Max Verstappen and rivals away with supreme pace up front; Verstappen left to settle for second, with Charles Leclerc third; Lewis Hamilton a season-best sixth
Monday 6 May 2024 11:20, UK
Lando Norris claimed the first victory of his Formula 1 career in his 110th race as he took full advantage of a timely Safety Car and then emphatically pulled away from Max Verstappen to win the Miami Grand Prix.
Shedding the unwanted record of the most podium finishes without a win (15) in his sixth season of F1, Norris ran only sixth in the race's opening stages but the decision by McLaren to extend his opening stint proved inspired when the Safety Car was called for a crash for Williams' Logan Sargeant on lap 29.
Having already inherited the lead with all those ahead of him having pitted by then - including race leader Verstappen - Norris was then crucially able to pit while the rest of the field ran to the reduced speed behind the Safety Car and re-emerge still in front.
But the job was far from over though with 24 laps still to go and Verstappen, the dominant winner of four of the season's first five races, right behind him for the restart.
Yet Norris made light of that apparent challenge to close out his first F1 triumph as, instead of having to focus on defending from the world champion behind him, the 24-year-old consistently pulled away from Verstappen in the laps that followed and eventually won by a dominant 7.6-second margin.
Norris takes McLaren's first win since Daniel Ricciardo's in the 2021 Italian GP and just their second in the past 12 years.
"He's a super popular young man is Lando Norris. He beat both Ferraris and Red Bulls fair and square," said Sky Sports F1's Martin Brundle.
"That is what will be extra satisfying about this victory."
Fighting back tears as his jubilant McLaren team lifted him aloft in the pit lane as wild celebrations commenced, Norris said: "About time! What a race. It's been a long time coming.
"Finally I've managed to do it."
With no answer to friend and rival Norris' speed after the restart, Verstappen had to settle for a rare second place - just the second time in the world champion's past 23 race finishes that he has been beaten on track.
Ferrari had been expected to be the biggest threat to Verstappen after qualifying second and third but their challenge was stymied at the race start when the other McLaren of Oscar Piastri overtook both of their cars.
Charles Leclerc eventually took the final podium position in third, two seconds behind Verstappen, with Carlos Sainz crossing the line fourth in the sister car.
But Sainz was handed a post-race five-second time penalty, dropping him behind Red Bull's Sergio Perez to fifth, for an earlier collision with Piastri at Turn 17 which broke the McLaren's front wing and forced the Australian into an emergency pit stop.
Piastri dropped out of the points as a result to finish 13th.
Lewis Hamilton finished in the highest position of his difficult season so far in sixth after a strong race for Mercedes, finishing within two seconds of Perez.
Perez had nearly wiped out team-mate Verstappen at the start of the race when he locked up and ran wide into the first corner.
Yuki Tsunoda beat the second Mercedes of George Russell to eighth to add to RB's points haul in Miami, with Fernando Alonso recovering from his disappointing qualifying to take ninth for Aston Martin.
At the sixth time of asking in 2024, Alpine opened their points account with Esteban Ocon racing hard to 10th.
In the world championship standings, Verstappen - the winner of Saturday's Sprint - leaves Miami with an increased advantage of 33 points over Perez, although fourth-placed Norris is now within 20 points of the Mexican.
Questions as to when and where Norris would eventually win his maiden grand prix had been growing since the middle of last season when McLaren's big step forward in performance had seen the Englishman consistently deliver podium finishes amid Verstappen's domination of the cherished top step.
Two weeks after another runner-up finish to Verstappen in China, McLaren arrived in Miami with an MCL38 car for Norris featuring an impressive raft of 10 different upgrades.
The car's initial performance in practice and then the opening stages of Sprint Qualifying on Friday had looked very promising, but then things again fell away as Norris qualified only ninth for the Sprint before being collected as an innocent party in the first-corner chaos that followed at the start of Saturday's 19-lap race.
And although qualifying fifth for the main Grand Prix represented progress, McLaren did not appear in the mix to take on the Red Bulls and Ferraris for victory.
But Miami's 57-lap grand prix on a street track that had proved difficult to master for drivers all weekend had other ideas.
Although he lost a place to his fast-starting team-mate Piastri on the first lap, Norris' consistent pace thereafter behind the top five was such that McLaren could extend his first stint and steadily gain the track position that proved so crucial.
"Lando Norris is doing brilliant laps," noted Sky F1's Ted Kravitz during commentary.
"It's been recognised by his pit crew. Sainz is starting to feel the pressure from behind."
Finding himself in the lead when the last of the leaders, Piastri, pitted on lap 27, Norris then held the race lead for real three laps later when he was able to duck into the pits under the Safety Car after Sargeant had hit the barriers at Turn Three in the wake of a clash with Haas' Kevin Magnussen.
In a further boost, the Safety Car had arrived on track in front of second-placed Verstappen, meaning the net gap between Norris and his chief rival only grew on the McLaren's lap to the pits with the Red Bull running to the further-reduced speed of the Safety Car.
A slick service from the McLaren crew got Norris back out ahead, and although Verstappen initially challenged him on the first corners of the restart, a small error from the Dutchman gave the Briton the space he needed and he was able to move more than one second clear by the time DRS was enabled.
Norris, in supreme form in his upgraded car, never looked back as he surged to his maiden F1 triumph.
Lando Norris, McLaren - 1st: "I'm just proud. A lot of people doubted me along the way. I've made a lot of mistakes over my last five years in my short career but today we put it altogether.
"This is all for the team. I stuck with McLaren because I could believe in them and do believe in them. Today we proved exactly that."
Max Verstappen, Red Bull - 2nd: "Once they switched onto the hard tyre, they just had more pace, and especially Lando, he was flying. It was incredibly difficult for us on that stint, but if a bad day is P2, I take it.
"I'm very happy for Lando. It's been a long time coming and it's not going to be his last one, so he definitely deserves it today.
"I mean understeer, oversteer, just very low grip on four wheels, and that's something that we have to understand."
Charles Leclerc, Ferrari - 3rd: "We did our best but the timing of the Safety Car wasn't great for us and we had the oldest tyres.
"But we managed everything quite well and P3 was the best we could do and we are satisfied with that."
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