Lando Norris finally became an F1 race winner at the Miami Grand Prix, beating Max Verstappen by more than seven seconds in his upgraded McLaren – helped by a safety car
Max Verstappen was full of praise for Lando Norris after the Briton secured his first Formula 1 victory.
Verstappen led the first half of the Miami Grand Prix but pitted not long before the safety car came out after Logan Sargeant crashed. Norris was leading at the time and was able to retain that advantage after stopping for new tyres of his own.
Upon the restart, he had the pace in his McLaren to keep the Red Bull at bay. Not only that, but he stretched out the lead and was more than seven second ahead of Verstappen when he took the chequered flag.
And the Dutchman smiled as he admitted he was powerless to stop his friend from beating him. Verstappen said: “You win, you lose. I think we’re all used to that in racing, right? Today was just a bit tricky. I think already on the mediums, I didn’t feel fantastic. We were pulling away but not like it should be.
“And then once we made the pitstop and I heard what lap times that McLaren were doing I thought, ‘Wow, that’s pretty quick.’ Once they also switched on to 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.”
Verstappen gave Norris a big hug in Parc Fermé after they had climbed out of their cars. And he heaped praise upon the Briton as he expressed his delight that his friend had finally broken his F1 duck at the 110th attempt.
He said: “And I’m very happy for Lando. It’s been a long time coming. And it’s not going to be his last one so yeah, he definitely deserves it today.”
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