Norris beats Verstappen at Miami to take first career victory
McLaren's Lando Norris beat all odds and took victory at the Miami Grand Prix, his first win in Formula One after a few near misses and lots of second place finishes. Max Verstappen finished second as Charles Leclerc completed the podium for Ferrari.
When the lights went out in Miami it was Verstappen who easily maintained the lead from pole. The cars behind however were surprised by a huge lunge on the inside by Sergio Perez. The Mexican locked up his inside front wheel and only just missed Verstappen in Turn 1. Sainz and Norris had to take avoiding actions enabling Leclerc to maintain second place and Piastri to move up into third place. Sainz and Perez followed with Norris in 6th, then Hulkenberg, Hamilton, Tsunoda and Russell after the latter also lost three positions.
Of all cars most started on the medium compound tyres. Only Bottas had opted for the softs to start the race while Hamilton, Alonso, Magnussen and Ricciardo started the Miami Grand Prix with the hardest Pirelli available.
On lap three Piastri then recorded the fastest lap and the next lap the McLaren driver managed to overtake the second placed Ferrari of Leclerc in Turn 17 at the end of the long straight. This move dropped Leclerc directly in the path of Sainz with Perez just another extra second behind. Leclerc's ability to maintain within DRS range of Piastri enabled him to keep Sainz at bay even though the latter seemed to have more pace in hand.
Further behind Hamilton managed to take 7th place from Hulkenberg after a very close fight but he saw Hulkenberg pass again when Hamilton missed his braking point at Turn 17. That wasn't great news for Hamilton as it was clear that Hulkenberg was a whole lot slower than the cars ahead while Russell, Tsunoda, Gasly, Alonso, Albon and Ocon were all fairly close behind. In lap 10 Hamilton got it done again in Turn 12, this time with a little less aggressive defending from Hulkenberg.
Stuck in that dense pack of cars, Stroll was second to pit pit with Sargeant and Bottas following suit in the same 12th lap. All three took hard tyres, just like Albon did one lap before. Hulkenberg and Gasly did so one lap later.
Meanwhile Perez had lost contact with the Ferraris ahead and as a result was seriously threatened for 5th place by Lando Norris. Sainz on the other hand continued to explain to Ferrari he felt like something had to happen, and surely, on lap 16, Leclerc put in the fastest lap so far to increase the pressure on Piastri.
Perez was the first of the top 6 to pit He left the track just in front of Norris and got a new set of hard tyres in 1.9s. Perez returned to the track in 10th place, in between Ocon and Alonso. Freed from Perez, Norris immediately upped his pace and improved Leclerc's fastest lap, shaving off 4 tenths of the deficit with Sainz even though the Spaniard also recorded a personal best.
Leclerc switched to hard tyres on lap 20 and rejoined the racetrack less than a second behind Hamilton as the top three all set personal bests with Norris fastest again. Leclerc cleared Hamilton one lap later and moved on to sharpen the fastest lap again.
Next up was a scare for Max Verstappen as he missed Turn 14 and clipped off the cone on the apex. It was carried by his car right into Turn 16 where it rolled off the Red Bull and onto the middle of the track. To clear it a Virtual Safety Car was instated, triggering severalpitstops, including one for Verstappen, Ocon, Alonso and Magnussen. Russell pitted one lap later and dropped from 7th to 12th position.
This brought Piastri in the lead, followed by Sainz, Norris, Verstapen, Leclerc, Hamilton, Perez, Tsunoda, Zhou and Ricciardo.
Piastri and Sainz then pitted on lap 28, enabling Norris to take the lead, 11.5s ahead of Verstappen and another 2.6s ahead of Leclerc.
A single lap later Sargeant found himself in the wall once again. The safety car was brought out leading to another series of pitstops. After a fight through Turn 1 Sargeant came together with Magnussen on the approach to Turn 3. It looked like Sargeant was unaware Magnussen was there. The stewards deemed Magnussen at fault and handed him a 10 second penalty. Surely a blow for the Haas driver as he also had to pit to get a new front wing.
The safety car then picked up Verstappen as Norris pitted, resulting in a situation where Verstappen, Leclerc and Piastri were following the Safety Car and Norris was half a lap up. Race control then realised the problem and allowed everyone to pass the Safety Car which then waited for race leader Norris to catch up with him.
The safety car left the track at the end of lap 32 and the race went on. Verstappen was eager to take the lead again but failed. Instead, Leclerc had a look in Turn 12, surprising Verstappen and immediately dropping him out of DRS range from Norris.
Behind them, Sainz momentarily seemed to have gotten past Piastri for 4th place but the Australian came back under braking and pushed the Ferrari wide to keep his position, a move "noted" by the stewards. Sainz insisted he had to be given the position while McLaren told Piastri to hold position, leaving Sainz with no option but to calm down and try again.
Having expressed his unbelief in the lack of penalty repeatedly, Sainz made another move at the end of lap 39 and eventually got past the Australian McLaren driver in Turn 1 of lap 40. Piastri went wide there and subsequently found himself missing some downforce, losing positions to Perez and Hamilton before pitting for a new front wing. Brief contact with Sainz's rear wheel damaged the McLaren front wing at Turn 17, resulting in a drop to 19th, or otherwise last.
In front, Norris was simply very fast right from the restart and consistently build up his lead to Verstappen. On lap 42, with 15 remaining, he led by 3.4 seconds. The gap continued to increase slightly every lap, eventually resulting in the first Grand Prix victory for Lando Norris, one that everybody knew was coming sooner or later after a few near misses.
The other McLaren of Oscar Piastri meanwhile recorded the fastest lap of the race but doesn't get an extra point due to finishing outside the top 10.
Results to follow...
