His voice could tell from Thursday that something was wrong – Lando Norris is hampered by illness in Austria. But does it really hold you back?
Lando Norris gave his interviews this weekend with a slight cold and a slightly hoarse voice. He revealed at the Austrian Grand Prix that he has been struggling with certain problems for about two weeks. Even after the sprint time trial, it was clear that he was not at 100 percent, and after Saturday’s sprint race, he was asked how much the situation hindered him.
“I can’t say how much of an impact it has. It doesn’t help, but I wouldn’t say it changes my performance on the court” – He told.
Then he coughed and remarked with a smile: “Only in speech… So let’s leave it and I’ll be happy!”
“How does it affect me? I do not think. Rather, it’s only outside the field that I’m tired, I don’t sleep well and things like that.”
“So it has a little bit of an effect, but nothing that I would use as an excuse to help on the field…” he explained.
Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri (Photo: XPB)
Sick or not, Norris did not miss the sprint race or Saturday’s time trial due to his condition. First, he whipped himself for a mistake he made during the battle with Max Verstappen, and in the second, he simply didn’t see a chance.
“It was quite good, but not an amazing round. It was a little harder than yesterday. Because of the wind and the conditions” – evaluated the time trial training, in which he finished second.
“We are relatively further back: closer to Mercedes and Ferrari, further away from Max. Yesterday I maybe did a better lap, today I was one or two tenths away from a really good lap, but it’s not enough to beat Max either. He did a good job, Red Bull has made a lot of progress compared to yesterday. It was definitely much faster than what we could achieve today.”
“We have the second place, the first row, I hope we can turn it into a good result tomorrow.”
When asked if, like Red Bull, they managed to improve their car compared to the sprint, Norris said: “It doesn’t look like it… We changed a few things, but we were always good at making our car very good right away, close to the best. After that, we just try to perfect it if we can. Maybe the others could only improve more than us because we perfected things sooner. We made progress, only certain things made it more difficult.”