Lando Norris Lands his Maiden Win in Miami

This weekend was a sprint weekend. Verstappen took the two pole positions and won the Sprint Race yesterday. For the start of the race, he was joined by Charles Leclerc in his special Ferrari livery. Sainz picked up P3 in qualifying, followed by Sergio Perez and then the two McLaren drivers – the Brit just ahead of his Aussie teammate.

Most of the drivers opted for the hard compound tyres except Hamilton, Alonso, Magnussen and Ricciardo who put on the yellow boots, and Bottas who decided on the softs.

As the lights went out and the cars raced down to Turn 1, Max Verstappen held onto his lead. He was followed by battling Ferrari teammates who had to take avoiding action of each when Perez locked up into the first corner. All this allowed Oscar Piastri to make a move down the inside and rise from P6 to P3, slotting just behind Leclerc, in the space of one turn.

Replays showed that Perez was very close to running into the back of his teammate at Turn 1. The stewards were looking into a potential jump start from the Mexican, but in this case, it resulted in no further action.

Piastri focused his eyes ahead and got past Charles Leclerc a couple of laps later. He used the DRS between Turn 16 and Turn 17 to take second place.

There were nervous times for Alpine as the French pair went wheel-to-wheel on several occasions. Pierre Gasly eventually made it out on top. In the points paying positions, Nico Hülkenberg on his mediums passed Lewis Hamilton for P7 – but it wasn’t long until Hamilton’s tyres came into their working window and he got back past the German.

Kick Sauber and Williams led the first of the pit stops with all four drivers putting on the hard compound tyre. Hülkenberg pit for Haas and he also put on the white walled tyres.

Verstappen continued to grow his lead out in front – the gap now being over 3 seconds to Piastri behind. Norris was stuck behind the other Red Bull of Perez and was finding it hard to make any inroads on the Mexican.

Perez then boxed on Lap 18, allowing Norris clean air to chase after the Ferrari’s, his teammate and Verstappen. He came out of the pits in P10.

More drivers from the lead pack began to pit. Leclerc boxed on Lap 20. It was a very quick stop from the pit crew down at Ferrari – with Leclerc being stationary for under 2 seconds.

It was all looking under control for Verstappen. However, that was until he skipped over the Turn 14-15 chicane and struck a bollard. He carried this with him for a few more metres and disposed of at the exit of Turn 16, which prompted the Champion to radio his team and ask for a front wing check.

The Virtual Safety Car (VSC) was bought out to allow a marshal to hop onto the race track and grab it. This allowed for some drivers such as Ocon, Alonso and Magnussen to have ‘cheap’ pit stops. Verstappen came in at the end of Lap 23 just as the VSC ended.

“It’s impossible to see the kerb now in the chicane,” reported Hamilton over the radio (following Verstappen’s moment). Hamilton then followed teammate George Russell into the pits – the seven-time champion taking on mediums, and the younger Brit moving to hard tyres.

It was on Lap 27 where leader, Oscar Piastri decided that it was time to pit. He was followed in by Carlos Sainz – both of them going onto the hard compound tyres. This in turn handed the lead over to Lando Norris who still had to pit, as well as Tsunoda, Ricciardo and Zhou.

Just a few moments later, the yellow flags were bought out, followed by a full Safety Car being deployed. This was for an incident involving Magnussen and Sargeant.

This played extremely well into the hands of those who hadn’t yet boxed – especially leader, Lando Norris. He managed to come out from his pit stop ahead of Max Verstappen – then followed by Leclerc.

Replays of the incident showed Magnussen attempting to have past Sargeant through Turn 2, where contact sent the American into the barriers, and the Dane into the pits. Magnussen received a 10-second penalty.

At the end of Lap 32, and following some more midfield stops, the Safety Car peeled into the pits. Leading the pack, Norris got back under way. However, the McLaren racer immediately came under pressure from Verstappen and had to go defensive through the first sector to keep his place at the head of the pack.

Thankfully for Norris, Verstappen made an error which gave him some breathing space. The other McLaren of Piastri got involved in a scrap with Carlos Sainz down at Turn 11 – the Spaniard feeling that he was forced off the track in the process.

As the laps continued, Norris continued to bridge the gap between him and Verstappen behind. This came as Verstappen reported over the radio that “I can’t get the car to turn” and described the situation as a “disaster”. It finally looked like the fan favourite would be able to take his maiden win.

Sainz managed to find a way past Piastri at Turn 17 after their earlier contact. The Aussie tried to come back at Sainz but he locked up at Turn 1 and lost place to Sainz, Perez and Hamilton.

During Sainz’s move past Piastri, the latter sustained some damage to his front wing and was forced to pit for a new one, meaning he dropped all the way to the back of the field. The McLaren driver then made it his mission to get back into the points but his race engineer, Tom Stallard, reminded Piastri that his teammate was leading the race and they did not want to cause a Safety Car.

Some other late action involved Albon and Stroll. The latter went off track in his fight to come out on top but landed a 10-second time penalty as a result, meaning any hope he had of scoring points were dashed.

Leading, there were no troubles for Norris who saw out the final few laps of the race to secure his maiden win in Formula 1! He finally claimed the top spot of the podium at his 110th race.

Verstappen was about 7.5 seconds behind Norris, with Leclerc a couple of seconds further adrift in third, Sainz taking fourth, and Perez completing the top five positions.

The two Mercedes drivers scored points with Hamilton being 6th and Russell being 8th – them being split by Tsunoda in his RB. Alonso and Ocon completed the top ten.

Here is the final classification:

Norris (DOTD)

Verstappen

Leclerc

Perez

Sainz

Hamilton

Tsunoda

Russell

Alonso

Ocon

Hülkenberg

Gasly

Piastri (Fastest Lap)

Zhou

Ricciardo

Bottas

Stroll

Albon

Magnussen

Sargeant (DNF)

Here is what Norris had to say after his monumental win: “About time! What a race. It’s been a long time coming, but finally I’ve managed to do it. I’m so happy for my whole team, I finally delivered for them. A long day, tough race, but finally on top, so I’m over the moon.”

The McLaren upgrades seem to have worked this race, but how will everyone fair at the next race in Italy. We return to Emilia-Romagna which was the first ever full F1 race I watched! Let’s see how things play out!