Max Verstappen admits to being stunned by Lando Norris's pace during the Miami Grand Prix.

"I didn't really see him in the beginning because I was more focused on Oscar behind and the Ferraris," said the Dutchman, referring to the opening phase when being pursued by Charles Leclerc and Oscar Piastri, while Norris had dropped to sixth. "But then I boxed and I heard the pace that he was doing on the used Mediums. I was like, 'I mean, that's quite insane'...

"I mean, I would have never been able to do so," he continued. "So I knew even if there wouldn't have been a Safety Car that when he would come out on fresh tyres that I would have had to push on quite a lot to be able to keep him behind.

"Then actually, I mean, the Safety Car came. Yeah, I mean... It's racing. Sometimes it works for you, sometimes it works against you. And even with that Safety Car, we still had all the opportunities to win today, but we're clearly not quick enough after that Safety Car. And once I realised that, I just settled in and tried to come home in second."

Asked how his car in the race compared to the Sprint, he said: "It was just quite poor, I would say, in the race. But also, I never really felt comfortable the whole weekend with it.

"I think on the medium it was still OK-ish, but on the hard it was quite a disaster," he added. "I mean, just low grip, very tricky balance in the low-speed. I couldn't really lean on the rear while in the high-speed I was understeering a lot. So when you have these two issues, you cannot also balance it out because you're chasing two different things. So yeah, just driving to the grip that I had and it was not a lot.

"You win, you lose," said the three-time world champion. "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. Especially Lando, he was flying.

"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.

"He was just miles faster at the end there. So yeah, it's great, winning your first race is always, I think, quite emotional, it brings you back to, you know, all the days that you worked towards Formula 1, you dream of being on the podium, but then being on the top step.

"So, yeah, of course, naturally I'm not very happy with my day, but you can appreciate and respect what Lando has done today, and I'm very happy for him."

Check out our Sunday gallery from Miami here.