Norris: It was time for the first victory in Formula 1

McLaren driver Lando Norris said he was happy about his first career victory in Formula 1 and that he was proud of his team.

"It was also time to win. What a race. It's been a long time coming. I managed to do it. I'm so happy for the team. I finally managed to bring them the win. Long day, hard race. Finally I'm on top, I'm delighted" , Norris said after the race.

Norris took the first victory of his career in Formula 1 last night in Miami, ahead of three-time consecutive world champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull.

He is the 114th different winner in Formula 1.

"The whole weekend was good. I had a little problems, but on Friday I knew I had a good pace. There were a few mistakes in some places. We managed to put everything together. We had a perfect strategy and it paid off. Thanks McLaren, everyone. Salute to the parents , of course," said the 24-year-old Norris.

He said he was proud of his team.

"Many doubted me. I made a lot of mistakes in the last five years of my short career, but today everything came together. This is for the team. I stayed at McLaren because I believed in the team and I believe in the team. Today we proved it," Norris stated.

Second-placed Verstappen said Norris deserved to win.

"Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. We're used to that in racing, aren't we? Today was a bit tricky. On the medium hard tires it wasn't fantastic. We had the lead, but not as much as we should have and when I went to the pits and heard the results that McLaren achieves, I thought, 'Wow, that's pretty quick'. When they switched to hard tyres, they had more pace, and Lando in particular was flying. It was incredibly difficult, but if it's a bad day, I accept it." he stated.

"I'm happy for Lando. His win was a long time coming and it won't be the last, today he definitely deserved it. They came with an improved car. It looks like it worked, doesn't it? We have work to do. It wasn't our strongest weekend in terms of pace , but we will analyze everything and try to come out of this stronger," added the leader in the general classification.

Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc took third place.

"It was awkward at the start. Sergio Perez was next to me, I didn't start well. I saw Cech on the right, I thought we were going to collide, but we all managed to get out of the first corner. After that I tried to concentrate on ourselves, but we lacked a bit of pace today," he stated.

"We did our best, but the moment the safety car came out on the track wasn't great for us because we were on the oldest tyres. But we managed to manage pretty well and third place was the best we could do and we're happy" , added Leclerc.

The next race in the championship is on May 19 in Imola, for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.