Lando Norris has long been due a win in Formula 1, and the day finally arrived for the McLaren star as he claimed the top step in the Miami GP. Starting from fifth, the Briton had everything to be able to win, and former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestly luckily placed a bet on it.
Priestly revealed the same thing to X (formerly Twitter). “I promise this is true….I never bet on #F1, but yesterday I put a bet on @LandoNorris to win the #MiamiGP“, wrote Priestly. The 47-year-old also revealed 18/1 odds to express how happy he was with his bet. Although the odds were against Norris, he undoubtedly deserved his win.
I promise this is true….I never bet on #F1, but yesterday I put a bet on @LandoNorris to win the #MiamiGP. 18/1
— Marc Priestley (@f1elvis) May 5, 2024
Norris was running sixth in the early stages of the race when the safety car incident allowed him to take matters into his own hands. On lap 29, when a safety car was released after Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant crashed, McLaren and Norris played a beautiful strategy to take the lead and grab the win.
Running at P6, after everyone in front of him had made the pitstop, Norris boxed in normal racing conditions and emerged in the lead with Max Verstappen demoted to second. From there on, Norris defended his lead, and with a cool, calm, and collected performance, he booted the torments of his near miss at the 2021 Russian GP.
At his 110th Grand Prix, Norris finally got to spray the champagne on his crew with the winning trophy at the exceptional Miami GP circuit.
Lando Norris finally ends his long wait
“Finally, I’ve managed to do it,” said Lando Norris as he claimed his maiden victory in F1. It had indeed been a long time coming for him, as he had previously won several podiums but never finished on the top step.
Interestingly, Norris also registered an unwanted record in the process. After his podium finish in Australia, he became the first driver to register 14 podiums but never a win. Norris then extended that run in China by finishing second.
Lando: “[..] I go on instagram and I like all the comments of people abusing me. I freaking love it. It makes me smile more than anything. Especially LandoNoWins. Proving them wrong put a bigger smile on my face. I thank them.” pic.twitter.com/KAvABAMXxr
— tami. (@Vetteleclerc) May 5, 2024
However, with Norris finally breaking his curse, he was unsurprisingly nothing short of ecstatic. The 24-year-old had a gleaming smile as he jumped into the hands of his McLaren team to celebrate his maiden win.
This victory is also a testament to McLaren’s improvement since the start of the 2022 season when F1 first introduced the new ground-effect regulations. It was only in midseason last year that McLaren seemed to have come to terms with the rules, and since then, they have been on an upward slope.
