Miami Grand Prix: Lando Norris surprises everyone and wins the race
While the start of the race had been largely dominated by Max Verstappen, Lando Norris took advantage of an incredible safety car mistake to take the lead and never look back. The British driver secures the first victory of his career! Esteban Ocon scored the first point for Alpine this year.
The conditions were perfect for a race on this Sunday afternoon in Miami, with 29°C in the air and 45°C. The preparations will have been of rare intensity (even on the scale of F1), with a set of show business stars (Will.I.Am, Jerry Bruckheimer…), sports (former skier Lindsey Vonn, Bam Adebayo from the Miami Heat), and even politics with the presence of Donald Trump, who turned the paddock and the starting grid into a real beehive.
After the party, it was time for serious business. Unlike the Sprint Race, the first corner went well. But that didn’t prevent there from being a lot of action: Charles Leclerc messed up at the start and was overtaken by his teammate Carlos Sainz. However, Sergio Perez tried to pass both Ferraris and went straight on! As a result, the Monegasque overtook and Oscar Piastri took the opportunity to move into third place. This friendly exchange allowed Max Verstappen to open up a gap of 1.3 seconds by the end of the first lap, well outside the DRS zone.
From the fifth lap, Oscar Piastri found an opening on Charles Leclerc, who thus found himself ahead of his teammate. Naturally, Carlos Sainz did not miss to point out that he thought he was faster than the Monegasque, without consequences for many laps since Charles Leclerc remained in the DRS zone of the McLaren, notably with the best lap in the race. In the end, it was the Spaniard who found himself dropped by the two drivers in front of him.
The first wave of tire changes was marked by extremely fast stops from Sergio Perez and Charles Leclerc: 1.9 seconds each! Many back-of-the-grid drivers took advantage of the brief Virtual Safety Car caused by Max Verstappen on the 22nd lap, who missed his braking point at the chicane of turn 15 and hit a plastic bollard. But Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz waited until the 27th lap, allowing Charles Leclerc to successfully perform the undercut and move back ahead of the Australian.
On the 29th lap, the actual safety car was deployed on the track, following the collision between Logan Sargeant’s Williams and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas. The Dane tried to pass on the inside of the American in the sequence of turns 2 and 3 but simply propelled him into the barriers after clipping his right rear wheel. Once again, the Dane was handed a ten-second penalty for this maneuver.
The big mistake of the safety car that changed everything for Lando Norris.
But the big winner of the operation was Lando Norris, who had not yet stopped. It must be even more helped that the safety car went to the wrong lead car. It positioned itself in front of Max Verstappen when the leader at that time was Lando Norris! The McLaren driver had all the time to make his own stop and find himself in the lead of the race!
The race was restarted on the 33rd lap. The British driver, well aware that he had the chance to secure his first victory, set the fastest lap of the race on this restart lap, making the most of his new tires. He quickly opened up a gap of more than a second. The gap continued to increase gradually as Max Verstappen complained about having very little grip on this set of hard tires.
Carlos Sainz and Oscar Piastri fought for many laps. The Spaniard eventually found the opening but it caused a slight damage to the front wing of the McLaren, which was forced to go back to the pits and found itself in last position.
But in the end, it was indeed Lando Norris who won, never threatened since the end of the safety car period. So, he clinches his first victory in his 110th Grand Prix, reaching the same mark as Giancarlo Fisichella! Just a reminder, this record is still held by Sergio Perez, who claimed victory after 190 starts. However, Norris will not surpass the number of podiums before winning (15), a record he shares with Patrick Depailler, Jean Alesi, Mika Hakkinen, and Eddie Irvine.
Passed unnoticed, Yuki Tsunoda achieved a great performance by finishing in seventh place. He therefore perfectly responded to his teammate, Daniel Ricciardo, who had shone during the Sprint but only finished 16th today.
Also note that Alpine, supported by its ambassador Zinedine Zidane during the weekend, scored its first point of the year through Esteban Ocon. The Frenchman resisted but ultimately had to yield to Fernando Alonso.
From our special correspondent in Miami
