Norris beats Verstappen in Miami GP for first F1 win
MIAMI -- At the 110th time of asking, Lando Norris can finally call himself a Formula One race winner.
The British driver capitalised when a mid-race Safety Car vaulted him ahead of Red Bull's Max Verstappen and into the lead, one he never relinquished.
Norris had started sixth, but a collision between Williams' Logan Sargeant and Haas' Kevin Magnussen on Lap 28 altered the course of the grand prix.
The Safety Car that followed effectively gave Norris a free pit-stop and allowed him to restart ahead of runaway championship leader Verstappen, who finished 7.6 seconds adrift in second position.
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Norris was jubilant after the finish, shouting: "WOOOOOOOOOO! WOOOOOOOOO! About f---ing time!" on the team radio.
"I guess that's how it's done. Finally! Finally! I'm so happy. I knew it when I came in this morning, I said today is the day of opportunity and I nailed it, and you nailed it."
It was a popular result, demonstrated by the fact most drivers congratulated Norris on either his victory lap back to the pits or once he had climbed out of his car.
After the race Norris said: "About time, huh? What a race, it's been a long time coming and finally I've managed to do it -- so I'm so happy for my whole team, I've finally delivered for them. A long day, tough race but finally on top so I'm over the moon.
"I am, [proud] the whole weekend has been good, we had some little set backs along the way. I knew on Friday we had the pace, and just a couple of mistakes here and there. But today we managed to put it together, we put the perfect strategy and it all paid off. Thanks to McLaren and everyone, I have to give a particular shout to to my mum and dad."
When asked if he wanted to give a message to the team, he said: "I'm just proud really, a lot of people doubted me along the way. I've made a lot of mistakes over my last five years in my short career but today we put it all together, so this is all for the team. I stuck with McLaren because I believed in them and I did believe in them and today proved exactly that."
Fernando Alonso and former teammate Daniel Ricciardo were among the drivers who found Norris before the podium ceremony to congratulate him.
Verstappen said on his second place: "I mean, you win, you lose, we're all used to that in racing. Today was just a bit tricky. I think today on the mediums it didn't feel fantastic, we were pulling away but not like it should be and then once we made a pit stop. I heard what time the lap times the McLarens were doing and I was like 'yeah that's pretty quick'. Once they [McLaren] switched over to the hard tyre they were pretty quick, especially Lando, he was flying.
"If a bad day is P2, then I take it. I'm very happy for Lando, it's been a long time coming. This isn't going to be his last one, he deserves it definitely."
Coming into Miami, Norris held the unenviable record of the most podium finishes (15) without a victory, although he consigned that to the history books.
Ferrari's Charles Leclerc finished third ahead of teammate Carlos Sainz, while Red Bull's Sergio Perez was fifth.
Lewis Hamilton, who joined the plaudits for Norris after the race, finished sixth ahead of RB's Yuki Tsunoda and George Russell.
Fernando Alonso finished ninth, while Esteban Ocon grabbed a memorable point for the Alpine.
The race appeared to be settling into a familiar rhythm, with Verstappen leading -- although he was unable to shake the chasing pack as he has at other events this year.
Everything changed shortly after Verstappen's first pit-stop of the race when Magnussen tried an opportunistic move on Sargeant, putting both into the wall.
Norris, who had not yet made his first stop, effectively was able to change tyres without losing the same amount of time he would have normally.
The British driver resisted an aggressive attack from Verstappen at the restart but it was the closest the Red Bull would be to his car again, with Norris able to pull away over the second half of the race and win by a comfortable margin.
The nerves were clear at McLaren.
In the final laps, teammate Oscar Piastri was fighting closely with RB's Ricciardo and almost came to blows with his former teammate at one stage.
His race engineer then told Piastri: "Oscar, reminder, Lando is winning the race, we do not want to cause a Safety Car here..."
Piasti might well have joined Norris on the podium were it not for a collision with Sainz earlier in the race which forced him into an unscheduled stop for a new front wing.
Verstappen leads the drivers' championship by 35 points, with 136, as Norris moves up to fifth with 83 points.
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