A strategic gamble has lucked Lando Norris into his maiden F1 victory in the Miami Grand Prix.
Norris started fifth and was running fourth at the start of the pitstop cycle. He had a 12-second lead when the safety car was called after a collision between home-hero Logan Sargeant and Keven Magnussen.
The safety car slowed the rest of the field down and allowed to make his pitstop and keep the lead. Despite having Max Verstappen behind him, Norris drove calmly to claim his maiden F1 race win by more than seven seconds.
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“Oh f—, I love you all. We did it,” he said over team radio.
“I guess that’s how it’s done. I’m so happy.”
He also dedicated the win to his grandmother.
The win came with former US president Donald Trump watching on from the McLaren garage.
Verstappen and Norris are close friends off the track. Verstappen pulled up alongside Norris to congratulate him on the cool-down lap back to the pits.
His Aussie teammate Oscar Piastri was on for a stunning result himself, but finished well out of the points after a collision with the Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
Starting sixth, Piastri was in third by the end of the first lap. He was running fourth after the safety car restart when Sainz clipped his front wing in a clumsy move at the hairpin at the end of the straight.
The wing was damaged, and Piastri was forced to pit for a new one. That collision will be investigated by stewards after the race.
He and countryman Daniel Ricciardo were involved in a thrilling battle for 16th place in the closing laps. They eventually finished line-astern in 15th and 16th.
Ricciardo’s race was also compromised by the timing of the safety car.
Starting last, the RB team started him on the hardest of the three tyre compounds, which would have given him a tyre advantage over his rivals at the end of the race. But the safety car meant everyone around him got a cheap stop, which nullified any advantage.