Lando Norris has said that he retained faith he could compete for the win in the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix even when he was running sixth during the opening laps.
Having qualified in fifth place, Norris lost out to McLaren team-mate Oscar Piastri at the start and was behind Red Bull’s Sergio Perez across the first stint of the race.
However, Norris extended his starting stint to obtain the lead once others pitted and then retained that position when a mid-race Safety Car intervened in proceedings.
The Briton was then able to pull clear on the restart to take the chequered flag and his maiden F1 success at the 110th attempt, bringing an end to his prolonged wait.
When asked whether a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, Norris said: “As much as I wanna say no, it’s a yes. Like to get that first victory is always incredible.
“I’ve of course had my moments where we’ve been close and I’ve never been able to convert it into it, into the win.
“But I wasn’t worried, like as much as a lot of people doubted that I was gonna be able to put it together and win a race. I wasn’t worried.
“I’ve kind of been more confident than ever this year that I’ve got what it takes and the team have got what it takes. And I was patient with it.
“I said it this morning, like it’s not often that I’m optimistic about things. But actually all weekend there’s been something, you know, like already practice, quali.
“We’ve been close and we were very good on Friday and there was kind of that spark and we maybe lost it a little bit into Saturday.
“But today definitely came back and turned into a little fire. So yeah, it was an incredible race.”
Norris admitted that his optimism that he could challenge was blunted at the start but reignited when he could see still polesitter Max Verstappen leading up ahead.
The McLaren driver stated that he was mindful to avoid a repeat of his Turn 1 exit from the Sprint when he saw Perez diving late on the brakes at the opening corner.
“It [that belief] was put out very quickly, but I mean, I had to, I kind of had a little flashback to yesterday’s Sprint race, when I saw Sergio on the inside,” he said.
“Just thought, let’s try make it around Turn 1 for once, so I took it easy I knew like we had good pace and I knew I was in it for the long game.
“I was behind Checo the whole of the first stint, but my pace at the end of the first in was the best on track and I can still see Max.
“And when you can see Max, there’s hope. And it’s not often that you can see Max on track.
“So I knew the whole time, even when I was back in sixth, that there could have been opportunities, whether there was one Safety Car or something went my way.
“I was very quick at the end of the first stint, I kept my head down, we kept pushing, everyone boxed from ahead of me and I could just use all the pace that I had, which was a lot of it.
“And being able to go so long on the tyres, being able to have the pace I had, turned into that bit of luck, I’ll happily admit, sometimes you’ve got to have a bit of luck on your side and things have got to go your way and I had that today, but I’ll take it happily.
“After the Safety Car I could kind of just get my head down and push on and I was confident I could take it from there.”
