‘One of my hardest F1 races’ - Lando Norris reveals tonsillitis struggle

Lando Norris has revealed he has been suffering from tonsillitis across the Spanish Grand Prix F1 weekend.
Lando Norris
Lando Norris

Despite feeling unwell, Norris battled 🎃through to finish an impressive eighth a🌟t the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya. 

The young British driver was knocked out in Q2 after his best♚ lap was invalidated for ꧋exceeding track limits at Turn 12, meaning he was out-qualified by McLaren teammate Daniel Ricciardo for the first time in nine grands prix.

Norris recovered well in Sunday’ꦅs race, even overtaking Ric🌠ciardo on track in the early stages to finish inside the top 10 for the fourth time in 2022.

Norris’ ill health was highlighted by the fact h🍸e was forced to miss the usual pre-race cer𓃲emony and several of McLaren’s engineering meetings across the weekend.

“Today was tough,” Norris explained. “I was feeling really unwell before the race as I'm suffering with tonsi𓄧llitis, and that, in combination with the high temperatures, made this ꧅one of the hardest races I've ever done.

“I've been a bit on the backfoot this weekend as most of my energy has been spent fighting off this illneཧss.

“I've🍰 had to miss a lot of engineering sessions, which has compromised my weekend, and I definitely wasn't as prepared for the Grand Prix as I could have♐ been. With that in mind, I'm really pleased to have come out of the race with decent points for the team.”

McLaren introduce𒁏d a significant upgrade package for the F1 Spanish Grand Prix - 10 components in total - but they still lagged behind midfield rivals Alfa Romeo and Alpine in outr💝ight pace.

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL36. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Spanish Grand Prix, Barcelona, Spain, Race Day.-
Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL36. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Spanish Grand Prix,…

Norris’ points haul means McLarꦺen remain fourth in the F1 constructors’ championship going into this weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.

“The team have been working realജly hard to bring performance to the car, so I'm glad we could take something from the weekend,🎃” Norris added. 

“We'll look at the data over the next few days, see if there's any additional performance we can extract from the car and make sure we're ready ✱tಞo go for Monaco.”

Another torrid day for Ricciardo at F1 Spanish GP

Even though Ricciardo✅ was able to quꦬalify inside the top 10, the Australian quickly found himself out of the points in Barcelona.

A lack of pace meant Ricciardo found himself behind ♈Norris, Yuki Tsunoda aﷺnd Fernando Alonso (who started last) within the opening 18 laps of the F1 Spanish GP.

Given Norris ꦬwas racing unwell, Ricciardo should have been the lead McLaren.

Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) McLaren MCL36. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Spanish Grand Prix, Barcelona, Spain, Race
Daniel Ricciardo (AUS) McLaren MCL36. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Spanish Grand Prix,…

Speaking after the race, Ricciardo admitted that he simply didn’t have any grip from the🐎 start of the 🌃race.

“Yeah, I wasn’t there from the start. And it wasn’t it wasn’t like I had understeer - I mean, I did - but it was just overall lack of grip. I thought at the start of t𒀰he race, it was very, very slow. I thought, okay, maybe, I don’t know, temperatures just got too high or something with the tyres.

“You know, [at] the start you’re obviously 🧔fighting cars and maybe things like that can happen. We did a thಞree-stop race, so I have four sets of tyres today and was very, very slow and all of them so not sure. Really, really sad race.”

Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL36. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Spanish Grand Prix, Barcelona, Spain, Qualifying
Lando Norris (GBR) McLaren MCL36. Formula 1 World Championship, Rd 6, Spanish Grand Prix,…

McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl added: “It was a long and challe꧒nging Spanish GP under very hot conditions. Lando together with the team maximised everything we had in our hands today and finished in P8. 

“On Daniel's side unfortunately, after getting into Q3 yesterday, we were struggling a lot with the rear of the car whenever we tried to push more, and went backwards in the race finishing in P12. We have some homework 🐬to do over the next couple of days to understand why.

“Lando did not feel well al🗹l weekend but showed great fightin🦋g spirit battling it through and bringing home some points for the team. We wish him a speedy recovery now in the next few days and will hopefully have him back at full energy in Monaco in a couple of days.”

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