Lando Norris, Daniel Ricciardo, Miami International Autodrome, 2024

“He fully deserves it” – Rivals united in praise for Norris’s breakthrough win

Formula 1

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Lando Norris’s breakthrough grand prix victory was warmly received by his fellow drivers.

The McLaren driver became the 114th grand prix winner in Formula 1 in the Miami Grand Prix, ending the fourth-longest win drought for any of the 20 drivers on the grid.

Norris beat championship leader Max Verstappento win the race with help from a fortuitous Safety Car deployment. It is the first time the Red Bull driver has been beaten to the chequered flag in a race he has finished all season.

Verstappen was one of the first to congratulate the newest member of the exclusive club of F1 winners. “I’m very happy for Lando,” he said. “It’s been a long time coming and it’s not going to be his last one. He definitely deserves it today.”

Third place finisher Charles Leclerc believes Norris had proven himself a threat for the race win across the weekend.

“I’m really happy for Lando. He deserves it,” Leclerc said. “Very often he [got] very close to it, but for one reason or another, he didn’t make it. But today he did an incredible job.

“The whole weekend he has been on it. Already in Q2, I think, there was a lap where I was like, ‘okay, they are very, very strong’. We were expecting them to be strong, maybe not as strong as what they’ve shown today, but he fully deserves it.”

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Norris’ former team mate Carlos Sainz Jnr expects he will go on to win “many, many races in F1.”

“He’s been driving at an exceptional level,” Sainz told Sky. “Today he was on the lucky side, but I think luck comes to the people who deserve it and today he deserved to win.”

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton, who has praised Norris on several occasions in the past, said he was equally happy to see McLaren back on the top step of the podium.

“I feel really happy for Lando,” said Hamilton. “I just told him he needs to stay [in Miami] tonight. He’s going to try and change his flight. He’s got to, he just won a race.

“But it’s such a special moment to win your first grand prix. Obviously I started at McLaren so really happy to see them back at the top.”

Among those to congratulate Norris after the race was another of his former team mates, Daniel Ricciardo, who was the last driver to win a race for the team at Monza three years ago.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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10 comments on ““He fully deserves it” – Rivals united in praise for Norris’s breakthrough win”

  1. Tom Baker
    6th May 2024, 1:27

    Tom’s putting it in now to celebrate.

  2. Jonathan Parkin
    6th May 2024, 4:47

    It’s ironic it happens on a day when Nico Hulkenberg breaks Andrea DeCesaris’ record, one that had stood since the Spanish GP of 1989

  3. As Sky said during the race Norris has now raced as many times as Hamilton did in a McLaren. It’s hard to believe how much time has passed since his debut. It doesn’t feel that long ago… I was worried at times that Norris would never tale.revenge for what happened at Russia in 2021. He deserved that one. But I’m glad it’s happened again. And specially happy for McLaren. It’s a very vintage win these days, like if a Williams won…

    1. Mmm, the comparison with williams looks exagerated, mclaren was still consistently one of the red bull-chasing teams this and last year, if you exclude red bull they’ve been very competitive in relation to everyone else; mclaren winning and especially norris was a long time coming, while williams winning nowadays would be a shock, seems even points would be an achievement.

  4. I take Hamilton’s suggestion as partying.

  5. I was absolutely certain that Max would turn up the heat and sweep past Lando after a lap or two.

    I am delighted to be made to look like a fool :)

    1. Yes, I was thinking the same, that he wouldn’t be able to defend; when he was able to keep 1,5 sec margin after drs was already enabled I thought that was a serious chance.

      1. He was pretty far down the road at the end wasn’t he? Ten seconds or something? He pretty much Verstappened Verstappen.

    2. Oh, and norris in the last stint pulled away faster from verstappen than verstappen was able to do with piastri in the first stint.

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