He will therefore have waited 110 races. After fifteen podiums in F1, Lando Norris has finally become a Grand Prix winner. The Briton won the Miami GP, sixth round of the season, after a magnificent race ahead of Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari). McLaren had not won since 2021 in F1.

It is a Miami Grand Prix which was played in two stages. The first was a classic at the start of the season with Max Verstappen in front and the others behind. However, the Dutchman never really took off, remaining 3 seconds ahead of Piastri, author of a great start and overtaking Leclerc to take second place at the start of the race. At a crazy pace, the Australian stayed a good distance from Verstappen while keeping the Ferraris behind him. The stops then followed one another near lap 20 with Leclerc and Perez then Verstappen and Piastri and Sainz. All this allowed Lando Norris, then 6th, to have a free track and to set lap records. Unleashed, the Briton even found himself leading following the competitors’ stops.

Still on track, the McLaren driver benefited from a double boost. First, at the start of lap 29, Logan Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen were colliding. The first was out of the race and the second penalized but both caused the entry of the safety car. The Briton then dove into the pits to put on the hard rubber and lose a minimum of time. A bet easily won since the safety car, so used to positioning itself in front of Verstappen, had the wrong leader. Instead of blocking Norris, she blocked Verstappen. Which gave rise to a slight imbroglio. And with a small advantage for the Briton.

And on the restart, on lap 33, Norris did Verstappen. He pushed hard to get the Dutchman out of the DRS zone and he succeeded with great success. Thus preventing the Batavian from remaining in contact. Lap after lap, the Briton dug deeper to quickly increase the gap to more than three seconds and fly towards a more than deserved victory. Solid leader of the championship, Verstappen is therefore content with second place. The Dutchman was good on his first stint but suffered much more with the tough ones afterwards. After Sainz in Australia, Norris proves that Red Bull is not invincible. Finally, a little chat with Alpine’s first point. Esteban Ocon took a good tenth place, taking advantage of the racing circumstances and a more than decent pace. The Frenchman gives a smile to the Blues while Pierre Gasly ranked 12th. See you in two weeks with the start of the European Grand Prix with that of Imola.