Today's post-race press conferewnce with Lando Norris, Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc.

Track Interviews - Conducted by Jenson Button

Q: Lando Norris, how does it feel to be an F1 Grand Prix winner?
Lando Norris: Oh wow. About time, huh? F***, sorry. What a race, huh? Yeah, it's been a long time coming, but finally I've managed to do it, so I'm so happy for my whole team. I finally delivered for them. And, yeah, long day, tough race, but finally on top, so I'm over the moon.

Q: It wasn't the most straightforward race for you, starting fifth, going back to sixth, and then having to fight your way through. Obviously, a little bit of luck with the Safety Car, but the pace was dominant at the end. It was really dominant. You must be proud.
LN: I am. I mean, the whole weekend's been good. I've just had some little setbacks along the way, but I knew on Friday we had the pace, and just a couple of mistakes here and there, but today we managed to put it together. We put the perfect strategy, it all paid off, so thanks to McLaren, everyone, and I have to give a shout-out to my mum and dad, of course.

Q: Amazing. Do you have a message for this team that obviously you've stuck by for a couple of years now, you've built together, you've grown into a race winner with McLaren?
LN: What do I say to them? I'm just proud, really. I mean, a lot of people, I guess, doubted me along the way. I've made a lot of mistakes over my last five years, my short career, but today we put it all together, so this is all for the team. I stuck with McLaren because I could believe in them, and I did believe in them, and today proved exactly that.

Q: We'll go and save it every moment. This is a memory you will have forever.
LN: It is indeed. Thank you so much, mate.

Q: Max, P2. This is the first time you've been beaten on track for over 20 races now. How does it feel?
Max Verstappen: I mean, you win, you lose. I think we're all used to that in racing, right? But, yeah, today was just a bit tricky. I think already on the Mediums it didn't feel fantastic. We were pulling away, but not like it should be. And then once we made the pit stop, and I heard what lap times the McLarens were doing, I was like, 'wow, that's pretty quick'. So yeah, once they then also switched on to the Hard tyre, they just had more pace. And especially Lando, he was flying. Yeah, it was incredibly difficult for us on that stint. But if a bad day is P2, I take it, right? And I'm very happy for Lando. It's been a long time coming. And it's not going to be his last one. He definitely deserves it today.

Q: So what was wrong with the balance? It sounded like you were struggling with understeer, getting the car to pivot, to turn.
MV: Yeah, I mean, understeer, oversteer, just very low grip on four wheels, and that's something that we have to understand.

Q: Does this feel like it's a true pace from these guys, that these guys are going to be able to challenge you from here on, or do you think it's a circuit-dependent?
MV: Yeah, I mean, they came with an upgrade. Yeah, for sure it looks like it works, right? So we have a bit of work to do from our side. I think 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 stronger from it.

Q: Bad result, P2, not too bad. Well done, Max. Charles, so that was a very up and down race. The incident at the start with Checo flying past, how did you see that?
Charles Leclerc: Well, it was very tricky. Obviously, Checo was on my inside. I didn't have a great start. As soon as I left the clutch, I had wheel spin. I saw Checo on the right, but there was very little grip, so he locked up. And I thought we would crash, but fortunately for everybody, we all got out that first corner without any damage. Then it was all about trying to focus on ourselves, but today we're again missing a little bit of pace. But we did our best. Obviously, we have been unlucky with the Safety Car. The timing of the Safety Car wasn't great for us. Then we ended up having the oldest tyres of all the guys at the front. But we managed everything quite well. So P3 was the best we could do, and we should be satisfied with that.

Q: Yeah, normally when you're a couple of seconds off of Max, it's not a bad result, right? But when you've got a McLaren that far, with Lando in front, it's a little bit of a surprise.
CL: Yeah, well, first of all, I'm really happy for Lando. He deserves it. Very often, he arrived very close to it, but for one reason or another, he didn't make it. But today, he did an incredible job, and the whole weekend, he has been on it. And already in Q2, I think there was a lap where I was like, 'OK, they are very, very strong'. And we were expecting them to be strong, maybe not as strong as what they've shown today, but he fully deserves it. And now it's up to us to hopefully bring the upgrades very quickly and catch up.

Q: Well, from a very difficult start on Friday, FP1 to a podium, it's not too bad.
CL: Yeah, it's not too bad.

Press Conference

Q: Lando, but many congratulations. This victory has been a long time coming. Just how sweet did it feel up there on the top step of the podium?
LN: It felt incredible. I mean, it's a good crowd as well. The whole team are there. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know what I'm meant to say, honestly, but just a lot of smiling, a lot of cheers. A lot of hard work goes into a day like today. But just happiness, me smiling, which is not always the case. But yeah, I mean, I dream of these days sometimes and you never know when they're going to come towards you. But today was that day. So as much as my mind was going crazy and I was thinking a lot of things, I was also just quiet, you know. It was just a bit lonely out there at times and it's just nice to kind of reflect on everything you've done to get to that point.

Q: Does this feel like a weight off your shoulders?
LN: As much as I want to say no, it's a yes. To get that first victory is always incredible. And I've, of course, had my moments where we've been close, and I've never been able to convert it into the win. But I wasn't worried. As much as a lot of people doubted that I was going to be able to put it together and win a race, I wasn't worried. I've kind of been more confident than ever this year that I've got what it takes and the team have got what it takes and I was patient with it. I've just been doing my job and executing my races, executing my qualis, and doing what I can do best. And I knew my time was coming. I said it this morning. It's not often that I'm optimistic about things. But actually, all weekend, there's been something, you know? Like, already practice, qualis. We've been close. And we were very good on Friday. And there was kind of that spark. And we maybe lost it a little bit into Saturday. But today, it definitely came back and turned into a little fire. So yeah, it was an incredible race.

Q: You were sixth at the end of lap one. Did you still have that fire, that belief that you could win at that point?
LN: No. It was put out very quickly! I kind of had a little flashback to yesterday's Sprint race when I saw Sergio on the inside. I just thought, 'OK, let's try to make it around Turn 1 for once'. So I took it easy. I knew we had good pace, and I knew was in it for the long game. I was behind Checo the whole of the first stint, but my pace at the end of the first stint was the best on track. And I could still see Max. And when you can see Max, there's hope. And it's not often that you can see Max on track. So I knew the whole time, even when I was back in sixth, that there could be opportunities, whether there was one Safety Car or something went my way. I was very quick at the end of the first stint. I kept my head down. We kept pushing. Everyone boxed from ahead of me, and I could just use all the pace that I had, which was a lot of it. And being able to go so long on the tyres, being able to have the pace I had, turned into that bit of luck, which I'll happily admit. Sometimes you've got to have a bit of luck on your side, and things have got to go your way, and I had that today. I'll take it happily. and yeah after the Safety Car I could kind of just get my head down and push on and I was confident I could take it from there.

Q: As you say the car was genuinely quick today. You had a raft of upgrades on it this weekend. Do you believe that you can challenge for wins on a regular basis now?
LN: I mean, I said at the beginning of the year we could win races. A lot of people doubted what I could say and the fact that I said that. I think they doubted that McLaren could win races. They doubted that I could win races. But I was confident. Deep down I knew that we had our time coming. So the team have done an amazing job. We weren't even into Q2 here last year. So now the fact we're on top, we've won a race, the team have done an insane job to kind of go from where we were to where we are now. And we've chipped away, especially the last couple of months. There's been a lot of hard work. And whenever you bring an upgrade, it's not easy to kind of just go out and execute and just show that it's better. But little things come together and when you have all these little bits coming together, it turns into a perfect day like it did today. So, of course, I have to say a big thanks to all of McLaren, everyone back in the factory, everyone that's here, because I doubt... It would have been a lot less likely that I won today without these upgrades and without the hard work that they've been putting into everything. So, I would like to say it's the start. And now I'm already hungry for more. But, yeah, we'll keep our heads down. We'll keep pushing and I'm sure we can be here a lot more often.

Q: Plans for this evening?
LN: I mean, I was meant to fly, but Zak just told me we fly tomorrow. I'm not going to sleep. I'm going all the way. I might have more than just a scratch on my nose tomorrow, so I don't care. But I'll enjoy my time. This only happens once when you're taking your first win. It's nice to do it here in Miami. I was kind of hoping it was going to be at Silverstone, but I'll try to do it there as well.

MV: It's definitely better here, mate, to go out!

LN: True. So tonight's going to be a good night.

Check out our Sunday gallery from Miami here.