Lando Norris revealed he didn’t have to push for long to pull away from Max Verstappen as he claimed victory in the Miami Grand Prix.
The McLaren driver moved into the lead through a mid-race Safety Car period. Norris showed strong pace prior to then in the team’s upgraded car and after the restart pulled out a 7.6-second lead over Verstappen in 25 laps.
Norris said he “had to push fairly hard just for a lap” at the restart “and then I could kind of relax a little bit.”
He was aided by the fact he pitted to change to the hard compound tyres six laps after Verstappen came in.
“I had fresher tyres, my pace was very good in clean air and Max was, for the first time all race not in clean air. So I had the advantage and I could control things fairly well.
“I pushed for the first bit, my engineer was giving me updates on the gap and I felt like I was cruising and extending the gap and I didn’t feel like I had to do anything more.”
Norris quickly had a one-second margin over Verstappen which meant his rival wasn’t able to use DRS. “I didn’t have to push too much for the first lap or two and then I could kind of cruise and be fairly comfortable,” said the McLaren driver. “I was still pushing, because I wanted to open the gap, like I said.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
He admitted he could have done a better job of the restart, where Verstappen briefly attacked, forcing Norris to defend his position.
“I’ve not done many Safety Car restarts from the front for a good amount of years,” said Norris. “Just a bit rusty, that was all. I’ll make sure I work on it a little bit more for next time.
“But as long as I defended well into turn one and kept the lead in turn one, I was quite confident I could go from there.”
He pointed out his car was quick early in the race, though that didn’t become apparently until Sergio Perez ahead of him pitted, giving Norris the benefit of clear air ahead.
“The pace was good enough in the first stint. Maybe didn’t look it at the very beginning, just because I was stuck behind a lot of cars. But having clean air, having fresher tyres as well, I could push.
“I was a little bit wary that Max normally is a bit slow off the mark and then all of a sudden clicks it into gear two and he’s gone. But not today. So in a good way, I could just stay focused, keep the car on track, not make any mistakes and the car felt great.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2024…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at RaceFans…