Norris claims maiden victory in thrilling Miami Grand Prix

Lando Norris claimed a maiden Formula 1 victory at the 110th attempt in the Miami Grand Prix, benefiting from a timely safety car to defeat Max Verstappen.

Starting fifth, Norris initially found himself running sixth in the opening stages, but the crucial moment in his race came when Sergio Perez pitted from fifth place, unleashing the McLaren driver, who began to pump in a series of fastest laps.

As the leading gaggle of Verstappen, Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz all pitted, Norris jumped to the lead having opted to go long on his medium tyres in hope of a safety car.

This came on Lap 28 when Logan Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen collided at Turn 2, with the safety deployed, allowing Norris to pit and rejoin in the lead, ahead of Verstappen and Leclerc.

The safety car came in at the end of Lap 32, as Norris bolted, gapping Verstappen with a series of fastest laps to comfortably escape the DRS activation, as Verstappen complained he could not turn the car.

Norris went onto win and claim his first victory in F1, and the 309th for British drivers in F1 and become the 21st Briton to do so. It is the first since George Russell at the 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

Verstappen took second ahead as Leclerc completed the podium places - with Lewis Hamilton sixth.

Perez lucky

At lights out, Verstappen initially got the better launch as Leclerc bogged down, but Perez went deep and nearly collected the sister Red Bull of Verstappen.

This caused the pack to bunch up, allowing Piastri to nip through into third place behind the two front-row drivers, as Norris fell in behind Perez in fifth.

Piastri passed Leclerc to run second, keeping Verstappen honest at about three seconds, as Norris was initially stuck behind Perez.

He pitted at the end of Lap 17 as McLaren told Norris it was going to run long and focus on catching Sainz ahead, as he then began to carve chunks of time out of the Ferrari to latch onto the back as the rest of the leaders began their pit-stops.

A brief virtual safety car on Lap 23 followed as Verstappen clouted a bollard at the Turn 15 chicane, with the Dutchman pitting at the end of that lap.

Piastri then took the lead, but like Leclerc, he pitted at the end of Lap 28, with the Sargeant-Magnussen collision happening on the next tour to deploy the safety car.

There was initially some confusion as the safety car picked up Verstappen in second as the leader, but the pack was quickly released to catch up to Norris, with the race resuming on at the end of Lap 32.

Using his hard tyres, Norris bolted and easily gapped Verstappen who could not keep up, as Norris pulled out nearly seven seconds.

He is the first Briton to win for McLaren since Jenson Button in the 2012 Brazilian Grand Prix.

Sainz was fourth, but faces an investigation for a collision with Piastri at Turn 17, as Perez lead home Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, Russell, Fernando Alonso and Esteban Ocon to round out the points positions.

Ocon picked up the first point of the season for Alpine with his 10th place, defeating Nico Hulkenberg for the position, with Pierre Gasly, Lance Stroll, Zhou Guanyu and Daniel Ricciardo falling in behind.

Piastri was set for a potential podium, but contact with Sainz at Turn 17 broke his front-wing, requiring a pit-stop for a fresh wing, dropping him to last place.

He did set the fastest lap, but as he was not in the top 10, so does not get the bonus fastest lap point.

Valtteri Bottas, Kevin Magnussen and Alex Albon were the final finishers as Sargeant was the only DNF of the race.