Lando Norris took his maiden Grand Prix victory for the F1 Miami GP Race, after the safety car allowed him to take a free pit stop and jump Verstappen.
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But, despite the helping hand, the McLaren genuinely had the pace after the team decided to bring a major upgrade package ahead of this weekend which featured 10 changes.
How it all Happened
At the start, it was Norris’ teammate Piastri who looked like he would be the man for the Woking team after capitalising on Sergio Perez’ dive up the inside at turn 1, almost taking out his teammate and compromising the fast-starting Ferrari of Carlos Sainz.
Piastri then passed Leclerc for P2 a few laps later as the front runners settled into a conservative pace as to not overheat the surface of the tricky Pirelli tyres.
Leclerc was the first of the main contenders to pit on lap 20 before Verstappen boxed a few laps later followed by Piastri and Sainz, with Norris staying out longer than everybody else as he had strong pace on the C3 mediums.
Before his stop, the reigning champion made a rare mistake, hitting the bollard at the turn 14-15 chicane, bringing out the virtual safety car.
This didn’t prove to be the decisive factor in the Grand Prix, as it was another incident that allowed Norris to jump ahead.
A Stroke of Luck
The safety car was released after Kevin Magnussen collided with Logan Sargeant at turn 3, which put the American into the barrier.
This allowed Norris to take a free pit stop and therefore the lead as Verstappen was stuck behind the safety car before he was released.
The restart was the only point it looked like the McLaren driver was vulnerable, with the Red Bull taking a look around the outside of turn one, but with no avail.
From then, Norris was free to pump in lap times consistently quicker than those behind him to take the flag over seven seconds ahead of Verstappen with Leclerc rounding out the podium.
Piastri finished outside the points after colliding with Carlos Sainz at the turn 17 hairpin, which gave him front wing damage and forced him to pit for a replacement.
Sainz came home in fourth after sustaining slight damage himself in his battle with the Australian. He was then followed home by the Red Bull of Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton who had his best Grand Prix finish of the season, after going with the alternate tyre strategy starting on the hard compound.
Hamilton’s teammate Russell finished eighth, with the pair split by Yuki Tsunoda. Alonso passed Ocon in the later stages of the race, to take home ninth ahead of the Frenchamn who rounded out the points.
The race gave us everything, overtakes, incidents, safety cars and more, but the main thing it gave us was a new winner in 2024 and the 21st British Grand Prix Winner! Congratulations Lando Norris!
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F1 Miami GP Race