A handful of the frontrunners nearly saw their races end at the first corner when Sergio Perez locked up and ran straight across the Turn-One tarmac. The Mexican was lucky not to spin his team-mate around before flashing past Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
That disruption allowed Verstappen to scamper off, while Leclerc held onto P2. The true winner, however, was Oscar Piastri, who scythed around the outside of both Perez and Sainz to place his McLaren into the top three. The young Aussie then cruised past Leclerc at Turn 17 with the help of DRS on lap four.
As the race unfolded, Norris showcased his pace and with the rest of the frontrunners pitting on conventional strategies, the Brit hit the jackpot. A clash between Logan Sargeant and Kevin Magnussen brought out the safety car and the No.4 car inherited the lead.
That crash was a bitter blow to Sargeant, who was in desperate need of a consistent weekend with rumours circling that he could be on the verge of being axed in favour of Mercedes’ teenage sensation Kimi Antonelli.
Norris managed the safety car restart like a seasoned veteran and following a mistake from Verstappen, stretched out his advantage to over a second by the end of lap 33. This gap stretched to nearly four seconds in the following 10 laps with the Red Bull driver struggling on entry into the low-speed corners.
There was less fortune for Norris’ team-mate though. Piastri picked up front wing damage following a tense battle with an enraged Sainz and subsequently lost positions to both Perez and Lewis Hamilton before the McLaren team opted to bring the young Aussie into the pit lane.
As the second half of the race unfolded, it became clear that only one man was going to take victory as Norris edged further and further away from the man who had denied him time and time again.
The 24-year-old crossed the line to end his wait for a race win, collecting applause from both Verstappen and Hamilton on the cool-down lap before dedicating the win to his grandmother.
That result made him the third different winner of the 2024 season alongside Verstappen and Sainz and leaves McLaren with plenty of optimism after a dream debut for their new major upgrade package.
