Lando Norris 114th Grand Prix winning driver

Pre-race

Let’s not lie to ourselves, this GP risks being intense for the first 2 or 3 laps then “boring” unless the safety car intervenes. Indeed, we saw that Ricciardo could keep Sainz behind him in a sprint race by using his battery wisely. But hey, we can have a good surprise, with the degradation of the rubbers.

On the grid, from Verstappen (P1) to Russell (P7) it starts in mediums. Hamilton takes a tough gamble to shift his strategy. Then we find mediums, then hard ones for Alonso (P15). Bottas for his part tries the tenders to make a very good takeoff. Magnussen and Ricciardo are also tough.

Start – 57 laps

The equation is simple for the Ferraris: try a crazy start and stay in the DRS zone or completely overtake Verstappen. Well ! No ! Verstappen makes the perfect takeoff unlike Perez who fails to pick up Leclerc and Sainz. Sainz, who had passed Leclerc, must slow down. Very good start from Piastri who goes 3rd. Behind, the Alpines are crumpled. Gasly resists Ocon who seemed to have passed him. Phew! Hülkenberg passes Hamilton.

Gasly overtakes Alonso for 12th place. Difference in tires requires. Well, Verstappen has already taken shelter from Leclerc’s DRS. At the edge of the 4th round, Oscar Piastri is close on Leclerc. Piastri passes Leclerc in the return line. It shouldn’t be long before we have Sainz on the radio…

2.2 seconds ahead for Verstappen over Piastri. Note that if Perez’s “dive bomb” was not noted by the track marshals, he might have stolen the start. That’s it, Carlos means on the radio that he has rhythm (implied “ask Charles to let me pass”).

In the 8th round, we have Verstappen, Piastri, Leclerc, Sainz, Perez, Norris, Hülkenberg, Hamilton, Russell and Tsunoda. For Ricciardo, the improvement in the sprint is over, he is dead last.

Round 10/57

Hamilton passes Hükenberg again. A Mercedes and a Haas fighting on the track…who would have thought it before this season? In the next round, it’s Russell who tries the same maneuver on Hülk, but it doesn’t work. Albon came back through the pits to put the tough guys on and go to the end. 45 rounds still all the same. Bottas imitates him a lap later. Verstappen remains 2.6 seconds ahead. Hülkenberg has left the DRS zone. This helps Russell pass it.

Gasly also goes to the pits We have to wait for everyone to stop but Gasly has undoubtedly passed Albon who had to battle with Stroll. Sainz continues to ask to change strategy or pass in front of Leclerc. Norris follows Perez closely. “Box opposite McLaren” announces Ferrari to Leclerc. But both remain on track. Strong head at Ferrari or announced too late?

Sainz decides to let go a little. Will he save his set of tires for longer? Still only 3 seconds between Verstappen and Piastri. At the end of the 17th lap Perez returned to the pits and released Norris who was unable to pass him. The McLaren driver will try to complete the qualifying laps before diving into the pits.

Leclerc dives into the pits at the end of the 19th lap. Perez had to wait behind Ocon (9th) and could pass through Norris.

Round 20/57

Leclerc started again behind Hamilton. Very nice pass from Leclerc from the outside. Hamilton only left him the space he needed but that was enough. Verstappen bypassed the chicane but picked up the cone on his front wing. To see if there is any damage. The cone is in the middle of the track and could require the triggering of a virtual safety car.

Virtual safety car on lap 23. Ocon and Magnussen “punished”. Ocon came out just behind Gasly. Good game. Verstappen is in the pits but we left under a green flag! Hard tires. Piastri is the new GP leader. Alonso changed the tires to mediums. It’s probably a little early to go to the end.

Ocon is 12th, he passed Gasly then Hülkenberg. A bit of a long stop (3.1 seconds) for Russell. He leaves behind Ocon. Come on, fingers crossed for Alpine from now on. Alonso passes Hülkenberg while Russell passes Ocon who does not try to defend too much. Hamilton enters at the end of the 26th lap. It’s early to leave the tough guys.

Ah Verstappen complains that hard tires are…hard. Magnussen and Sargeant are in the loophole! Safety car and it’s all good for Norris who is leading the GP (he hasn’t changed the tires yet). Norris not coming back? Well, it’s going to be difficult to make excuses for Magnussen this time. Well, for McLaren and Norris, it goes to the next lap, but it’s very strange not to have brought Norris in straight away.

Round 30/57

Big confusion with the safety car which came out with the wrong timing and had to let everyone pass to recover Norris, leader of the race. The huge joke! 10 second penalty for Magnussen. For all his work this weekend he should be suspended 1 GP. That’s it, everyone is gathered behind the safety car and it’s about to start again.

25 laps for Norris to win his first GP. It resists on the first turn. Norris, Verstappen, Leclerc, Piastri, Sainz, Perez, Tsunoda, Hamilton, Russell and Ocon for the Top 10. Norris’s best friend is Leclerc now. Norris took Verstappen out of his DRS zone. Things are getting worse between Sainz and Piastri. Piastri pushes Sainz off the track. To have.

Magnificent overtake from Hamilton on Tsunoda in the fast sequence. It’s not easy to pass without touching here. Sainz is angry on the radio. He believes Piastri pushed him off track. Norris soon had 2 seconds on Verstappen who was able to take Leclerc out of his DRS zone.

Ocon clings to 10th place but has Alonso on his heels. The McLaren is still resisting Verstappen who doesn’t like hard tires at all.

Round 40/57

Sainz blocks Piastri at the last hairpin. The Australian tries to come back at the first turn but goes wide. The Ferrari driver was angry and showed his teeth. Piastri is distracted by this overtake and Perez and Hamilton pass him. Obviously he has a problem with the front wing. He has to go back to change it and loses big in the story. He leaves last on the track. Sainz may have something broken on his Ferrari.

Ocon moved up to 9th place with Piastri’s mishap. Alonso remains in the Ocon DRS zone. The Spaniard is probably trying to be carried in a chair to the finish with his medium tires. Could Ocon try to slow down Alonso so that Gasly comes and tickles him?

Verstappen is 4.5 seconds behind Norris. Does this sound good for Norris’ first victory? If so, he would be the 114th driver in F1 history to win a grand prix and the first since Russell in November 2022.

Alonso looks like he can pass Ocon but is only showing himself in the mirrors at the moment. By the way, Magnussen took another penalty for an infraction in the pit lane. We are 10 laps from the finish. Great battle on track between Ocon and Alonso. For Gasly, he went through Hülkenerbg. Does Ocon have any interest in resisting Alonso for too long? Well, it’s settled, the Aston Martin driver has passed. Ocon must stay in the DRS zone to be towed and not lose his small point.

It’s not a win because Hülkenberg recovers quickly, with fresher medium tires.

Round 50/57

Piastri and Ricciardo fight on the track. Direct radio message for Piastri: “Lando is leading the race, we don’t want a safety car”. Did Hülkenberg eat his tires a little? He remains 1.2 seconds behind Ocon at the moment with 5 laps remaining.

The end of the peloton is a small train of DRS. Albon blocks the wheels and ends up in the escape route! At McLaren we are crossing our fingers that the car will restart. It’s done. Phew. We must no longer have nails at McLaren. 6.5 seconds ahead. We don’t see what, on a regular basis, can prevent Norris from finally winning.

For Ocon, it still holds! Have we already told you that we’re crossing our fingers for Alpine and Esteban?

Arrival

Lando Norris wins the Miami GP. He is superbly ahead of Verstappen who was unable to do anything on hard tires. Leclerc couldn’t follow the first two but got a good podium. He ahead of Sainz and Perez.

Followed by Hamilton who had not had a top 6 for a long time, Tsunoda who had a solid race and benefited from the same racing circumstances as Norris, Russell, Alonso and Esteban Ocon who took Alpine’s first point since the start of the race. season. For several GPs there has been improvement in qualifying, it is materialized by this small point.