Lando Norris has claimed Donald Trump referred to himself as the McLaren driver's new 'lucky charm' after recording his first victory in F1 at the Miami Grand Prix.
Norris fell down to sixth on the opening lap of the race in Miami with Max Verstappen once again out in front.
But the Dutchman never looked comfortable with his Red Bull and Norris ended up capitalising on a timely safety car midway through the race that enabled him to retain first place.
Norris held off the challenge from Verstappen when the safety car period ended and even pulled away from the championship leader.
Lando Norris spoke to Donald Trump after his win
X/@margommartin
There was no stopping the 24-year-old from that point on as he crossed the line to end his six-year wait for his first win in F1.
Norris proved a popular winner in the paddock with Lewis Hamilton, Verstappen and Charles Leclerc among the drivers to congratulate him.
Former US president Trump was one of the first people to speak to Norris after his win in Miami.
And the 77-year-old hinted to Norris that he might need to attend more F1 races in the future as the British driver's new 'lucky charm'.
“I didn’t see him in the garage to be honest, I was busy prepping for the race," Norris said.
“But he saw me after and he came up to congratulate me, so I guess an honour, because whenever you have someone like this, it has to be an honour for you – for them to come up to you, to take time out of their life to pay their respect for what you’ve done.
“He said he was my lucky charm because it was my win, so I don’t know if he’s going to come to more races now.
"But yeah, there’s a lot of special people, cool people that have been here this weekend.
Donald Trump was in attendance at the Miami Grand Prix
PA
“Donald is someone that you’ve got to have a lot of respect for, in many ways, and for anyone like that who acknowledges what you can go out and do, and acknowledges the work ethic that goes into things, you’ve got to be thankful for that, and I was.
“So, yeah. Cool moment, and that’s all.”
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President @realDonaldTrump congratulating @LandoNorris!!! pic.twitter.com/6bYOcClsYX
— Margo Martin (@margommartin) May 5, 2024
Norris' win is also McLaren's second since 2012 as the team look to return to the top of the sport and the British star feels it's something that has been a long time coming.
“I said at the beginning of the year we could win races,” Norris said.
“A lot of people doubted that but I was confident. The team have done an amazing job.
"We weren’t even in Q2 last year; the fact we have won a race shows the team have done an insane job to go from there to where we are today.”
