F1 Miami Grand Prix: Finally maiden F1 win for Norris

Lando Norris finally wins his much-awaited maiden grand prix at Miami for McLaren. It’s been a long time coming and after taking the chequered flag, Norris’ first reaction pretty much said it all, “Oh about time?” McLaren managed to halt the Red Bull juggernaut as Max Verstappen came second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. 

F1 Miami Grand Prix: Norris takes the chequered flag

On his 110th Formula 1 race, Lando Norris finally shed the tag of having maximum podiums without a win. It wasn’t a blistering start as some were hoping for the Briton who started fifth on the grid. With his teammate Oscar Piastri having a flying start, McLaren opted for a watch-and-wait strategy by extending his opening run and going for a late pit stop. The race gods were smiling down upon the McLaren man as Williams’ Logan Sargeant’s crash on Lap 29 forced the safety car to emerge on the track. After finishing one lap behind the safety car, McLaren told Norris to box and with a lightning-quick pitstop, he was back on the track ahead of Verstappen. 

Once the race restarted on Lap 33, Verstappen was on McLaren’s heels and was threatening to overtake, but Norris showed skill and maturity as he continued to defend his place and ensured he was nowhere near the DRS zone. As the British driver started to increase his lead from around six seconds to eventually crossing the finish line with a lead of 7.61 seconds, Verstappen was dealing with his demons as the car had understeering issues. The 24-year-old Norris finally laid to rest his almost-winning 2021 Russian Grand Prix moment and gave McLaren its first win since Daniel Ricciardo at the Italian Grand Prix in 2021. In that race, Norris came second. 

F1 Miami Grand Prix: All is not rosy for Ferrari and Piastri

Ferrari was expected to throw the gauntlet and be Red Bull’s worst nightmare after starting second and third. Sadly, both Leclerc and his teammate Carlos Sainz were slow off the block allowing McLaren’s Pistari to overtake them at the start of the race. After the restart, Piastri was involved in two racing incidents with Sainz. The second episode on Lap 39 became a bit nasty as the Ferrari man lost control of his car and hit Piastri.

This resulted in a broken front wing for the McLaren driver and the Australian had no choice but to pit due to this he finished 13th. Due to this collision, Sainz was handed a five-second penalty by the stewards and the Ferrari man lost his fourth place to Sergio Perez as he had to contend with fifth. It was a quiet race for Leclerc as he couldn’t match Verstappen’s pace and took the final podium spot. 

F1 Miami Grand Prix: The top 10

With such an underwhelming season so far, Mercedes boss Toto Wolff stated that with all the problems the team is currently facing, even the genius engineer Adrian Newey of Red Bull would struggle to find solutions. There was something to cheer about as Lewis Hamilton secured his season-best finish as he came sixth at the Miami GP. RB’s Yuki Tsunoda split the two Mercedes as he finished seventh ahead of George Russell. It was a bad day at the office for Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso as he took ninth place and Alpine scored its first point of the season with Esteban Ocon completing the top 10.