Norris secures maiden F1 win
MCLAREN’S British driver Lando Norris won his first Formula 1 race at Sunday’s Miami Grand Prix, beating his Red Bull opponent Max Verstappen.
In the 57-lap Miami GP, Norris passed the chequered flag first in a time of one hour, 30 minutes and 49.876 seconds to become a winner in his 110th race.
Defending world champion Verstappen finished second, with the Dutchman 7.612 seconds behind Norris.
Norris ran sixth in the early stages of the race, with fast-starting teammate Oscar Piastri the McLaren man who initially looked most likely to cause an upset, but a safety car at the midway point played perfectly into the Briton’s hands after he extended his opening stint.
Norris emerged from the pits in the lead, with Verstappen demoted to second after stopping under normal racing conditions, and despite an initial attack from the latter at the restart, the Briton managed to maintain the position and then edge clear.
“I’m very happy for Lando. It’s been a long time coming, and it’s not gonna be his last one,” Verstappen said, congratulating Norris.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was third in Miami. The gap between him and Norris was around 10 seconds.
His Ferrari teammate Carlos Sainz, who clashed with Piastri late on in an incident that sent the Australian back into the pits for a new front wing, was fourth.
Sergio Perez wound up fifth in the second of the Red Bulls, having completed another stop under the Safety Car, as Lewis Hamilton and George Russell salvaged some solid points on a challenging weekend for Mercedes in sixth and eighth respectively.
Yuki Tsunoda gave RB another reward in seventh, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso crossed the line ninth and Esteban Ocon capitalised on Piastri’s problems to finish 10th and score a morale-boosting first point of the season for the Alpine team.
This season, Verstappen has won four Grand Prix races in six rounds. He was victorious in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Japan and China, which was the previous round. Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz won in Australia in March.
Verstappen still leads the Formula 1 driver standings, with 136 points. His Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez has 101 points in second place. Leclerc, from Monaco, is third on 98 points.
Round 7 of the Formula 1 season will be held in Emilia-Romagna, Italy, on May 19.