Donald Trump claims he 'ENDORSED' 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's victory at the Miami Grand Prix - claiming he 'endorsed' the McLaren driver and his car.

The former president was the center of attention at the track before the race started, meeting with McLaren CEO Zak Brown and inspecting the team's cars in their garage.

Norris then went out on the track and claimed the first race win of his fledgling Formula One career, beating Red Bull's Max Verstappen to first place in Florida.

But Trump took to Truth Social afterwards 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 big Miami Formula 1 race. 

'It was the car I visited before the race, and Endorsed—that’s what we need for our Country—WINNING! 

A delighted Norris said it was an 'honor' to have Trump supporting him from the McLaren garage. 

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

'He saw me after and he came up to congratulate me so I guess it's an honor,' Norris told Mail Sport. 

'Whenever you have someone like this come up to you to take time out of their life to pay their respect for what you've done ... it has to be an honor,' he went on. 

Norris described the interaction as a 'cool moment,' revealing the current Republican Party frontrunner said he was 'a lucky charm.' 

'I don't know if he's going to come to more races now,' Norris joked. 

'But there's a lot of special, cool people that have been here this weekend. 

'Donald is someone that you've got to have a lot of respect for in many ways and for anyone like that who acknowledge what you can go out and do, and the work ethic that goes into things, you've got to be thankful for that.'

The papaya team previously distanced themselves from the equally orange politician.  

'McLaren is a non-political organization however we recognize and respect the office of President of the United States so when the request was made to visit our garage on race day we accepted alongside the president of the FIA and the CEO’s of Liberty Media and Formula 1,' the team said in a statement.