Lando Norris is finally a grand prix winner, with a remarkable performance in the Miami Grand Prix in his heavily updated McLaren. It was also the first McLaren victory over which team principal Andrea Stella has presided. It was a very special moment for both men and there was not a single rival who begrudged them it.
As Lando returned to the car from greeting his team around the parc fermé fences, waiting for him there with a smile was the runner-up, his good friend Max Verstappen, who is probably the biggest Norris fan in the paddock. He would probably have won the race, as usual, had it not been for the timing of a safety car gifting Norris a free pitstop after Max had already stopped. But actually, if he’d done so it would only have been through track position. Because the Red Bull was definitely not as quick on the day as the McLaren. Norris’s pace advantage was extraordinary.
The only reason Norris needed the safety car to help him win this race was that the car didn’t seem to like the soft tyre and so had qualified a couple of tenths off the pace behind both Red Bulls and both Ferraris. But once onto the medium or hard tyre, Norris had at least half-a-second advantage over them.
