Norris breaks through in Miami
Lando Norris began the week with his face wrapped in bandages after drunken King’s Day celebrations aboard a boat in Amsterdam ended in a badly-cut nose. He ended it the King of Miami, finally breaking his Formula One duck at the 110th attempt to spark wild celebrations at McLaren. And across the sport.
What a day. For Norris first and foremost. The 24 year-old has for some time been a race-winner-in-waiting. But he has suffered so many near-misses he must have felt cursed at times.
The sight of the young Briton leaping over the parc ferme barriers into the arms of his ecstatic mechanics, being hoisted onto their shoulders in tears, before wrapping McLaren chief executive Zak Brown and team principal Andrea Stella in big bear hugs, showed just how much this meant to him. And to the team. McLaren have been to rock bottom and back since Lewis Hamilton won their last world title back in 2008. The Woking team are starting to look seriously competitive once again.
Norris was clearly still in shock by the time Jenson Button approached him with a microphone for the pre-podium interviews. “About time eh? F---”! he replied when asked how it felt to be a race winner, at long last. “Sorry! But yeah it’s been a long time coming. I’m so happy for my whole team.
I finally delivered for them.”
What a day, too, for Formula One as a whole. Three-time world champion Max Verstappen may still be cruising towards a fourth successive world title – the Dutchman did not lose much ground here, finishing second to claim 18 points and extend his lead over Sergio Perez in the drivers’ standings to 35 points. But maybe, just maybe, we are going to have a fight from here on in.
“Woooooo! Wooooo!” Norris screamed over his radio as he took the chequered flag, thanking his team and particularly his race engineer Will Joseph. “We did it, Will! We did it! Finally!
“I knew it when I came in this morning. I nailed it. You nailed it. Thanks Mum, thanks Dad. This one’s for my grandma. Thank you very much.”
Heading into the race Norris held the record for the most podiums without a win (15), as well as sharing the record for most second-place finishes without a win (eight) with Nick Heidfeld. And it looked as if his optimism might have been in vain when he lost a place at a frantic start.
But the safety car which came out following a collision between Haas’ Kevin Magnussen and Williams’ Logan Sergeant on lap 28 proved a gift. Norris, who had not yet stopped, was able to dive into the pits for some fresh rubber while marshals cleared the debris, and still come out ahead of his rivals, who had pitted earlier.
And when the race restarted on lap 33, Norris was unstoppable on the hard tyre. By lap 34 he was out of DRS range at 1.3 seconds. By lap 44 the gap had risen to 3.5 seconds and Norris was setting fastest laps and held on for adeserved win..
“I’m just proud really,” he reflected. “I mean a lot of people doubted me along the way, I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the last five years, my short career but today we put it altogether so this is all for the team.”