Lando Norris becomes an F1 race winner after thrilling Miami GP

From the start, things seemed to be gearing up for yet another Verstappen procession. The reigning world champion had been complaining every session this weekend that he didn’t like the feeling of the car, and yet he kept finishing first in every session. And when Verstappen kept his lead at the start and began to steadily build his lead, it had all the makings of a weekend as we had seen so much this year. Though that almost was all wiped away right at the start, as Perez took an… “optimistic” line into the first corner which almost took out himself, Verstappen and the two Ferrari’s. Luckily everyone came out of that unscathed.

But even then, the cracks in Verstappen’s invincibility were already beginning to show. The lead that Verstappen had to Leclerc wasn’t increasing by that much. The Dutchman even missed the apex a couple of times and took one of the cones on the side with him. That actually screwed Verstappen over more than he could anticipate, because the Virtual Safety Car that came out to clear up the cone gave some drivers a benefit with their pitstop but went out just in time to not benefit Verstappen. The shuffling with pit stops gave the lead of the race first to Piastri and then to Norris, but that’s nothing strange.

Safety Car proves Lando's saving grace

But then a Safety Car came out. Logan Sargeant saw his home race ruined by Kevin Magnussen, taking the American out of the race and earning Magnussen another one in his already impressive list of time penalties for the weekend. The Safety Car came at just the right moment for Norris, who managed to keep the lead after his pit stop and thanks to the Safety Car being brought out a little clumsily managed to get a few extra laps in behind it.

What followed next was twenty of the most tense laps of racing I have seen in a long time. Norris began to slowly eke out a gap between him and Verstappen, but there was still so much that could go wrong. It wasn’t clear whether his tyres would last, whether Verstappen was just holding back, and most importantly whether or not there wouldn’t be another Safety Car to completely wipe away his lead again. Images of last lap disasters soared through my mind. Hamilton in Baku. Russell in Singapore. Verstappen in Brazil. And of course Norris in Sochi. 

It became clear that the biggest risk was that of another Safety Car. Oscar Piastri, determined not to let his teammate upstage him too much, had been locked in a battle with Carlos Sainz for P4 when they collided. Piastri had to change his wing and was sent back to the rear of the grid with about twenty laps to go. Piastri began charging through, lapping about a second faster than everyone else. He forced his way through a couple of drivers before the team reminded him that another crash and Safety Car would be pretty disastrous right now. That didn’t stop Alexander Albon from locking up and almost hitting the wall in what would be a near verbatim repeat of Nicholas Latifi’s infamous crash. But everyone kept it clean, and when that final flag fell, it was the McLaren of Lando Norris across the finish line first.

First win will not be the last

With all the excitement of Norris’s first win, you’d almost forget there was all sorts of mayhem happening further up the grid. Esteban Ocon somehow managed to fight Fernando Alonso and score the first points for Alpine. Yuki Tsunoda drove magnificently to bring back six more points for Racing Bulls. It means that Tsunoda now has passed Lance Stroll in the championship standings. Nico Hulkenberg managed to fight off Lewis Hamilton for several laps, almost landing himself in the points again. Hamilton himself drove a solid race to get sixth place, his best finishing position this season excluding sprints. 

It was a day of euphoria and a wonderful change of pace from a season in which Verstappen and Red Bull have obliterated their competition so far. And this time it wasn’t a DNF or some technical struggles that took the win from Verstappen: Norris won it fair and square, on pure pace and with a little bit of luck. The long list of congratulations he got from his fellow drivers was more than deserved. And as Verstappen himself said after the race: it’s Lando’s first win, but it certainly won’t be his last.