Max Verstappen shows true colours after Lando Norris upset win at Miami Grand Prix

Max Verstappen was full of praise for Lando Norris after the Briton secured his first Formula 1 victory.

Verstappen led the first half of the Miami Grand Prix but pitted not long before the safety car came out after Logan Sargeant crashed. Norris was leading at the time and was able to retain that advantage after stopping for new tyres of his own.

Upon the restart, he had the pace in his McLaren to keep the Red Bull at bay. Not only that, but he stretched out the lead and was more than seven second ahead of Verstappen when he took the chequered flag.

And the Dutchman smiled as he admitted he was powerless to stop his friend from beating him. Verstappen said: "You win, you lose. I think we're all used to that in racing, right? Today was just a bit tricky. I think already on the mediums, I didn't feel fantastic. We were pulling away but not like it should be.

"And then once we made the pitstop and I heard what lap times that McLaren were doing I thought, 'Wow, that's pretty quick.' Once they also switched on to the hard tyre, they just had more pace, and especially Lando, he was flying. It was incredibly difficult for us on that stint. But if a bad day is P2, I take it."

Verstappen gave Norris a big hug in Parc Fermé after they had climbed out of their cars. And he heaped praise upon the Briton as he expressed his delight that his friend had finally broken his F1 duck at the 110th attempt.

He said: "And I'm very happy for Lando. It's been a long time coming. And it's not going to be his last one so yeah, he definitely deserves it today."

Asked if he thought the pace McLaren showed was representative of what they will be able to produce with their new upgrades, he added: "I hope not! They came with an upgrade. Yeah, for sure, it looks like it works. So, we have a bit of work to do from our side. Definitely, it wasn't our strongest weekend in terms of race pace, but we'll analyse it all and we'll try to come back."

Meanwhile, Norris was struggling to take it all in as he reacted to finally achieving his boyhood dream. The 24-year-old said: "About time, huh?" before swearing on the live TV broadcast and apologising immediately afterwards.

Norris added: "What a race. It's been a long time coming but finally I've managed to do it. "I'm so happy for my whole team - I've finally delivered for them. It was a long day, a tough race, but I'm finally on top and over the moon."