06 May 2024 , 06:56
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Lando Norris has revealed he changed his flight time in order to celebrate his monumental victory in the Miami Grand Prix after advice from Lewis Hamilton.
In the 110th race of his five-year career in F1, Norris capitalised on the opportunity presented to him by a fortuitously timed safety car to beat second-place Max Verstappen and win his first ever grand prix. Charles Leclerc crossed the line in third, while a grid penalty for Carlos Sainz has dropped him to fifth with Sergio Perez moving up to fourth.
Norris was congratulated by a succession of his peers as McLaren celebrated jubilantly after the race. The appreciation continued into the post-race interviews, with Hamilton, who finished inside the top-six for the first time this season, lavishing praise on Norris and urging him to stay in Miami.
"Honestly I am so happy for Lando," Hamilton said. "I just told him he needs to stay tonight and he is going to try and change his flight. He has got to [stay], he has just won a race.
"It's such a special moment to win your first grand prix and obviously I started at McLaren so I am happy to see them back at the top, it has been a long time."
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Norris was due to fly back to England after the race, but confirmed himself that his flight had been changed to Monday so that he can toast his maiden victory.
"I was meant to fly [tonight], but Zak [Brown] just told me we fly tomorrow," Norris revealed. "I'm not going to sleep - I'm going all the way! I might have just a scratch on my nose tomorrow, but I don’t care. This only happens once, when you’re taking your first win.
Lando Norris celebrates winning the Miami Grand Prix (ong Haiyuan/MB Media/Getty Images)"It’s nice that it was here at Miami - I was kind of hoping it would be at Silverstone but I’ll try to do it there as well. Tonight is going to be a good night."
Verstappen, who was beaten by the speed of Norris over the 57 laps, was gracious in defeat and admitted he was pleased for the Brit to finally get over the line and win his first grand prix.
"If I get beaten, it's great that it has been done by Lando," said Verstappen. "He deserves it. It's been a long time coming and it's going to be the first of many.
"Maybe it's also a bit of relief for him that he has that win now, who knows what's going to happen next? But for sure they had a strong weekend. Maybe it was a little bit messy still [on Saturday] but today they were flying - and especially Lando was flying. So definitely very happy for him."