McLaren’s Lando Norris beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen with help from the safety car to take his maiden Formula 1 victory at the Miami Grand Prix.
Norris jumped to the front because he was able to make his pit stop when a safety car was deployed at about half distance while others had already stopped.
Verstappen was unable to keep pace with Norris when the race restarted with 27 laps to go, and the Briton stretched ahead, while the world champion had to settle for second ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
In addition to a bit of luck and timing, Norris’ victory was based on genuine pace – he was the quickest car on track once he was released from behind the struggling Red Bull of Sergio Perez when the Mexican made an early pit stop for tyres on lap 17.
From then until the safety car for a collision between Williams’ Logan Sargeant and Haas driver Kevin Magnussen at Turn Three, Norris turned on the pace and set the foundations for his win.
Sainz claimed forth after passing Perez in the final quarter of the race but afterwards the stewards penalised him five seconds for making contact with the Mexican during the maneuverer, dropping him to fifth behind Perez.
Lewis Hamilton had an eventful race in his Mercedes, battling first with Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas and then Yuki Tsunoda’s RB to take sixth, just a second behind Perez, ahead of the Japanese and the second Mercedes of George Russell.
And Fernando Alonso recovered from a poor qualifying in the Aston Martin – the Spaniard started only 15th – to take ninth place, passing the Alpine of Esteban Ocon, who took the final point for 10th place.
