Lando Norris finally, after 110 races in F1, made his star shine. Taking advantage of opportunities and leaving Max Verstappen behind, the McLaren driver finally achieved his first victory by finishing first in the Miami GP this Sunday (5).
On the starting grid, without any surprise it was Verstappen who lined up in the position of honor. Alongside him, Charles Leclerc was the one who closed the front row, with Carlos Sainz and Sergio Pérez completing the first four places in the field.
For the first stint of the race, the vast majority of the field chose to start on the medium tire. The exceptions were Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton on hard, and the drivers at the back of the field with Valtteri Bottas, 18th, choosing soft, and Kevin Magnussen and Daniel Ricciardo, penultimate and last, also on hard.
An authorized start and without any major surprises, Verstappen remained in first place in the field. Meanwhile, Pérez managed to make a good jump and placed second, but he pushed too hard, made a mistake and fell to fifth place.
On the second lap, the order on the track was with the Dutchman from Red Bull leading the line, followed by Leclerc, who was already 1s681 behind the clock, followed by Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz and the Mexican from the Austrian team.
The Australian from McLaren was off to a great start in the race. After the lights went out, he climbed three places to place third and, at the opening of the fifth lap, he went side by side with the Monegasque Ferrari driver at turn 17 to take second position. Still, he maintained the fastest lap and was turning faster than Verstappen.
When he comes in third place, Charles faces problems in his race. The Ferrari starter suffered with his rear tires, skidding throughout the lap, while Sainz, in fourth, began to get closer and closer.
A good fight that escalated and took shape was for seventh place. Nico Hülkenberg took advantage of a mistake by Lewis Hamilton to leave the seven-time champion behind, but the Mercedes driver began chasing the German to try to regain position, being just 0s425 behind his Haas opponent.
So, the Brit used the dirty part of the circuit to, on the inside, manage to leave Nico behind and return to seventh. Now, he began to hunt for Lando Norris, who was in front of him.
11 laps completed in Miami and the order had Verstappen in first with 2.765 seconds to spare and Piastri in second. Leclerc, Sainz, Pérez, Norris, Hamilton, Hülkenberg, Russell and Tsunoda completing the scoring zone.
Two laps later and the drivers began to make their first pit stops. Alexander Albon was the one who opened the pit-stop window and Hülkenberg and Pierre Gasly went next to change tires.
The hunt that took place on the urban circuit around the Miami Dolphins stadium was that of Norris over Pérez. The British driver from McLaren was less than 0s5 behind the Mexican driver from Red Bull, who was suffering due to his mistake at the start.
With 17 laps completed, only six drivers had made the pit stop: Hülkenberg, Gasly, Lance Stroll, Albon, Logan Sargeant and Bottas. Everyone was between 15th and last position. Shortly afterwards, it was Pérez’s turn to make his change and returned to the track in ninth.
Lap 20 and it was Charles’ turn to go to the Ferrari pits, stopping in just 1s9 and returning in sixth. Meanwhile, on the track, Norris recorded the fastest lap with 1min32s476.
An unusual situation happened to Verstappen. On lap number 22, the Dutchman from Red Bull ran over and ripped off the traffic cone at turn 15 and even asked on the radio to check if the front wing had any damage – the piece was left lying in the middle of the track.
Afterwards, the race management gave a virtual safety car to remove the middle section of the track. Hamilton even complained on the radio saying that he was taken to the racing line.
A number of competitors then took advantage of the brief period without being able to accelerate to head to the pits, such as Fernando Alonso, Esteban Ocon and Kevin Magnussen. But it didn’t take long for the green flag to be raised.
On lap 24, Verstappen was called to the Red Bull pit stop and, thus, Piastri was the new leader with Sainz in second and Norris in third – none of the top-3 had made their visit to the pits. Max returned to the track in fourth place.
With 24 laps completed, using the medium compound, Lando managed to set the fastest lap once again. Now it was 1min31s982.
It was time for Piastri, leader, and Sainz, third place, to be called by their respective teams to make the stops. There, Norris took the lead, but he still needed to pit – he was 11s550 ahead of Verstappen, second.
On lap 29, then, the first real safety car was needed to be deployed in the race. The reason was that Magnussen ended up hitting Sargeant in a fight for position and the American was the one who got the worst of it, standing in the escape area and needing help to be removed from the spot.
In this whole situation, it was Norris who got the better of it, who took the opportunity to make his stop and, thus, managed to return to first place. The green flag waved once again in Miami on lap 33 and the Englishman managed to stay in first place, closing the door on Verstappen, who still couldn’t open his wing.
Still, in the first few meters, Leclerc tried to attack Max and approached the Dutchman in a threatening way, but with no chance of being able to overtake. Lando was the one who took advantage to open up more of an advantage, being 1s4 behind second place and recording the best lap time of 1min31s157.
The order at this point in the race, with 23 laps to go, was Norris, Verstappen, Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Pérez, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Russell and Ocon completing the scoring zone in Miami.
Sainz and Piastri were in a dispute that was catching fire on the streets of Miami. The Spaniard was attacking the Australian for fourth place, going side by side and the McLaren driver leaving the track, but Oscar remained in position.
The pair were even placed under investigation for the fierce fight, but nothing was done and Piastri gradually began to open up Carlos, having 0s6 of breathing room. Meanwhile, at the front, Norris once again set the best lap with 1min31s074.
Lap 38 and Lando was on his way to his first career victory in F1, maintaining a 2s5 advantage over Verstappen, in second. Leclerc was in third.
Then Sainz’s engineer came on the radio to say there were 20 laps to go before the checkered flag and received a less than polite response, with the Spaniard stating “just leave me alone, Ricky, leave me alone”.
The fight between Sainz and Piastri was still very, very exciting. Carlos managed to leave Oscar behind and stopped on the track, but saw the Australian make a comeback in the next corner. It turns out that the McLaren starter made a mistake, passed straight and left the way clear for the Ferrari opponent to continue in fourth.
Afterwards, due to the collision, Piastri went to the pits to change the front wing and change tires – the pit-stop lasted 10s7.
At the front of the field, the three-time Red Bull champion complained on the radio that the car was not good. The driver stated that “I can’t turn the car, it’s a disaster”, already being 3s5 behind Norris, who set another fast lap.
Norris led the drivers, with Verstappen, Leclerc, Sainz, Pérez, Hamilton, Tsunoda, Russell, Ocon and Alonso completing the top ten of the race.
Lando never won a race or even a Sprint. The driver, if he finishes on the podium in second or third, breaks the absolute F1 record as the name with the most podiums without ever winning in F1, but that could end this Sunday in Miami.
The fights started to escalate towards the middle of the pack. It was now Alonso’s turn on top of Ocon, with the two-time champion attacking the Frenchman, who closed the door as best he could to hold back his Aston Martin opponent. It took a while, but the Spaniard managed to take ninth.
Piastri had been trying to catch up after falling to last place. Being in 17th place with the best lap and using an average tire, he tried to pass Ricciardo, but without success, with six laps remaining until the checkered flag. In fact, the Australian radio said that Norris was leading the race and there was no need to call for a safety car so close to the end.
Fighting to defend 14th place, Albon made a mistake at the back of the field. Trying to hold off Ricciardo, the Williams driver went straight through the corner and went to the escape area, falling to last place and heading to the pits afterwards.
Checkered flag and it finally came. Lando achieved his first victory in F1 by crossing the finish line first, more than 7 seconds ahead of Verstappen, second. Leclerc completes the podium on the day of the Miami GP.
F1MANIA.NET follows the Miami GP ‘in loco’ with journalists Victor D. Berto and Rodrigo França.
F1 2024, Miami GP, race, result:
1) Lando Norris (McLaren/Mercedes)
2) Max VersSargeantRed Bull/Honda RBPT)
3) Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
4) Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
5) Sergio Pérez (Red Bull/Honda RBPT)
6) Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
7) Yuki Tsunoda (RB/Honda RBPT)
8) George Russell (Mercedes)
9) Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin/Mercedes)
10) Esteban Ocon (Alpine/Renault)
11) Nico Hülkenberg (Haas/Ferrari)
12) Pierre Gasly (Alpine/Renault)
13) Oscar Piastri (McLaren/Mercedes)
14) Zhou Guanyu (Sauber/Ferrari)
15) Daniel Ricciardo (RB/Honda RBPT)
16) Valtteri Bottas (Sauber/Ferrari)
17) Lance Stroll (Aston Martin/Mercedes)
18) Kevin Magnussen (Haas/Ferrari)
19) Alexander Albon (Williams/Mercedes)
OUT) Logan Sargeant (Williams/Mercedes)
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