Norris Silences Critics with Maiden F1 Victory at Miami

Lando Norris becomes the 114th F1 Winner

McLaren might have been confident of a strong Miami Grand Prix, bringing major performance upgrades to the event. Even though beating Ferrari might not have been much of a surprise, a win was not on their bingo cards. But, after five years and 110 races, Lando Norris is finally an F1 race winner. Despite coming close a few times previously, the Briton always seemed to miss out on that first win narrowly, most painfully in the 2021 Russian GP where he lost control of his car in wet conditions after leading for most of the race. Following this victory, however, the memories of Russia 2021 are unlikely to haunt Norris and McLaren anymore. 

Even though the Woking-based team got lucky with a very cheap pitstop for Norris under the safety car, it is safe to say they won the race mostly on merit. Norris managed the safety car restart fairly well, and kept pulling away ahead of  Verstappen as the laps came down. The Dutchman, surprisingly was struggling with his car and had no answer to Norris's pace, finishing seven seconds behind him in second place, with Charles Leclerc only two seconds behind in third. 

Despite the victory, McLaren's Miami weekend fell short of being perfect. After setting the quickest time in SQ2, Norris could not replicate the same in SQ3, qualifying ninth for the Sprint. The struggle continued as an unavoidable lap-one incident ended his race prematurely. Oscar Piastri started and finished the Sprint in sixth place, bagging three points. Qualifying was a better story, with Norris and Piastri qualifying fifth and sixth respectively.

While the safety car played perfectly into Norris's hands, it compromised Piastri's race, who was running in second place until that point, but came into the pits just moments before the safety car was deployed. Having to pit again for a front wing replacement following a battle with Carlos Sainz for fourth place threw out Piatsri's points-scoring chances as he tumbled down the order. Even though he recovered impressively to 13th by the end, it would certainly be no consolation to him - especially with his teammate taking the victory.

Norris has put himself in the history books, becoming the 21st British driver, and the 114th in total, to have won a Formula One Grand Prix. He is also the 21st driver to win for McLaren, taking McLaren's second win in 12 years - the first one coming from Daniel Ricciardo at Monza in 2021. Regardless of Norris being a very solid and dependable driver who has extracted the full potential from his cars, bagging several podiums, the discussion about Russia 2021 has often hindered many from considering him one of the best in the sport. This victory, however, should silence most of the naysayers.

McLaren can hold their heads high after Miami given their massive turnaround in performance from this time last season. From finishing a minute and a half behind Verstappen here in 2023 to winning the race seven seconds ahead of him, their hard work has certainly borne fruit, and this might just be the beginning.