Norris Takes Maiden F1 Victory in Thrilling Miami Finale

At the Miami Grand Prix on Sunday, McLaren's Lando Norris shocked everyone by defeating world champion Max Verstappen to win the first Formula One race of his career. In his 110th race for McLaren, Norris defeated Verstappen by more than seven seconds, giving new life to an F1 season that was on the verge of becoming a one-man show once more. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari came in third.

Starting from pole position, Verstappen has won four of the first five races of the season and is now leading the world championship standings.

Four circuits later, Australian Piastri himself pulled into the pits, allowing Norris to take the lead and never look back.

Crucially, on lap 30, Norris was able to pit during a safety car, giving him a significant time advantage that he would never give up.

After Kevin Magnussen clipped Logan Sargeant, driving the American Williams driver into the wall and raising the yellow flag, the safety car arrived.

With 15 podiums before to his first victory, Norris made the most of the safety car and, with Verstappen finding it difficult to follow up, won his first race.

Norris Statement after lift the trophy:

The McLaren mechanics lifted Norris into the air as his arduous journey towards a championship in the sport came to a close.

"I knew on Friday that we had the pace today we managed to put it together," Norris said. "About time, huh?" he said. "We took the best possible approach, and everything turned out fine."

I suppose that many folks had doubts about me along the road. In my brief five-year career, I've made a lot of mistakes, but today we came together as a team, so this is all for the team.

"They just had more pace, Lando was flying. It was incredibly difficult for us, but on the bad days P2, I'll take it right?

"I stuck with McLaren because I could believe in them and I did believe in them and today proved exactly that," he stated.

The Russian Grand Prix in Sochi was a great opportunity for Norris who was not at his best previously. In the last stages he was leading again and missed an early tyre change when it was raining heavily, which could have been costly.

Verstappen, who was reciting about the car's lack of grip not only in the qualification but also during the race, mentioned, that he could not make his Red Bull car catching up with the McLaren car once Norris switched to the hard tyre.

"With more speed they have." As for Lando, "He was flying!". We had really hard times, yeah, it was not easy for me, but on the bad ones, P2, keep on pushing!

" I am so very excited about Lando. He is in for a good lap :) , definitely not his last one. Lando deserves it." said the Dutchman.

What Ferrari driver said ?

"He was very close many times before this, but somehow he didn't come through. But today he was very fast and the whole weekend he has everyone's attention,".

Sainz came in fourth, and Verstappen's Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez came in fifth. However, the two finished together, trading positions after the Spanish driver received a five-second penalty from the stewards for colliding with Piastri after the race.

Super Bowl-winning quarterback Patrick Mahomes, artist Ed Sheeran, former US President Donald Trump, and former France international football player and coach Zinedine Zidane were among those photographed at the event. Before the race, Trump paid a visit to the McLaren garage.