Lando Norris believes his maiden F1 win was a “long time coming” after he won the Miami Grand Prix.

After 110 Grand Prix and an F1 record of 15 podiums without winning, Norris finally stood on the top step on Sunday to become the 21st British driver to win a race.

The 24-year-old capitalised on a timely Safety Car to lead Max Verstappen with 25 laps to go and held his nerve to become F1’s 114th different race winner.

“I don’t know what I’m feeling! I’m just happy, proud. It feels like it’s been a long time coming,” Norris told Sky Sports F1.

“I feel like we’ve had many opportunities. We’ve been getting closer and closer.

“We’ve never been able to put it all together and today was that day. We’ve been good all weekend.

“As much as we had some setbacks – Friday Qualifying, the Sprint, not the best Qualifying on Saturday, I stayed positive. And that’s rare!

“It all just came together. We were quick all day. I had a good strategy, a good plan. I stayed out of the way of trouble in Turn One because it was very close. I just focused on our race and we were quick.

“Of course, we got a bit lucky with the Safety Car. But even after, the pace was the best on track by quite a long way.

“I have to say thanks to the team. Without this, it wouldn’t be possible.”

Norris: I was confident when Safety Car came out

Norris had the full upgrade package in Miami from McLaren and looked quick immediately from first practice.

However, Norris was on the wrong end of a first corner collision in Saturday’s Sprint and qualified in fifth for Sunday’s race.

It initially looked like a fight for the win between Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz and Norris’ team-mate, Oscar Piastri, but Norris took advantage of the Safety Car, for Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant’s collision, before cruising away from Verstappen.

“As soon as the Safety Car came out. Even before I felt very good. The pace was amazing, the pace was better than Max and everyone,” said Norris.

“I was a long way back but knew there could have been opportunities. Hard work turned into luck. It wasn’t just luck. Things were going well and that little extra thing helped me out.

“As soon as the Safety Car came out I wasn’t like ‘Max is going to have me here’. I was confident.

“I didn’t do the best of jobs on the restart. I defended into Turn One and from that point on it was fairly straightforward.”

Driver respect is ‘best thing’ after win

Norris was initially meant to fly out from Miami after the race, but moved his flight back to Monday, in order to continue the celebrations.

Following the race, he was congratulated by almost the entire field as he celebrated victory with his McLaren team.

“It’s incredible. That’s the best thing of all, the people you have respect for and the people you race against, when Fernando comes up to you and Lewis comes up to you, those are people I’ve looked up to since I was I kid,” he said.

“The fact I’m racing against them and… they are probably not deep down happy for me, but they are happy for me and I respect that a lot and I’m thankful for that.”

Norris pays tribute to De Ferran

Norris also paid tribute to former McLaren sporting director and consultant Gil de Ferran, who died at the end of last year.

De Ferran offered Norris advice when the British driver getting used to life in F1, after joining the championship in 2019.

“He helped us a lot. He said I was going to win a race in the next couple of years and I managed to do that, so a big shout out to Gil as well,” said Norris.

“My dad probably wishes he came here! But this was for my family, not just my mum and dad.

“I’ve travelled a lot, I spend a lot of time away. They have helped me since the very beginning – my brother, my sisters, my grandparents, it’s all for them.”

Formula 1 heads to Europe as Imola returns to the calendar following last year’s cancelled race. Watch the Emilia Romagna GP on May 17-19. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime

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