Donald Trump claims he ‘APPROVED’ Lando Norris before his Miami Grand Prix win as former president celebrates his ‘friends’ at McLaren

Donald Trump has moved to claim more credit for Lando Norris’ victory at the Miami Grand Prix – saying he “supports” the McLaren driver and his car.

The former chairman was the center of attention on the track before the start of the race, meeting McLaren CEO Zak Brown and inspecting the team’s cars in their garage.

Norris then went out on track and took the first victory of his young Formula 1 career, beating Red Bull’s Max Verstappen to first place in Florida.

But Trump later spoke to Truth Social and made it clear that he wanted some credit for Norris and McLaren’s success.

He wrote: “It was a great honor to see my friends at McLaren win the great Formula 1 race in Miami.

Donald Trump claimed to have “supported” Lando Norris before winning the Miami Grand Prix.

Trump posted on Truth Social that it was “a great honor to see my friends at McLaren win”

“This is the car I visited before the race and approved – this is what we need for our country – WINNER!”

A delighted Norris said it was an “honour” to have Trump supporting him from the McLaren garage.

He also met F1 chief executive Stefano Domenicali and FIA president Mohammed bin Sulayem before congratulating the 24-year-old Briton on his first victory.

“He saw me afterwards and he came over to congratulate me so I guess it’s an honour,” Norris told Mail Sport.

“Any time someone like this comes up to you to take the time out of their life to pay tribute to you for what you’ve done… it must be an honor,” he continued.

Norris won a Grand Prix for the first time in his Formula 1 career, beating Max Verstappen

Trump was the center of attention before the race, visiting McLaren and its CEO Zak Brown

Norris described the interaction as a “cool moment,” revealing that the current Republican Party front-runner said he was “a good luck charm.”

“I don’t know if he’s going to do any more races now,” Norris joked.

“But there are a lot of special, nice people who came here this weekend.

“Donald is someone that you have to have a lot of respect for in many ways and for anyone like him who recognizes what you can go out and do, and the work ethic that comes into it, you have to be grateful for. That.’

Team Papaya has previously distanced itself from the equally orange politician.

“McLaren is a non-political organization, but we recognize and respect the office of the President of the United States. So when the request was made to visit our garage on race day, we agreed alongside the FIA ​​President and from the CEOs of Liberty Media and Formula 1,” the team said in a statement.