McLaren driver Lando Norris is as good as recovered from his tonsillitis – He finishes Friday in Monaco as “Best of the Rest” and he wants to keep it that way
A week ago Lando Norris battled through the Barcelona heat race with tonsillitis to finish eighth. This Formula One weekend in Monaco he is not yet fully fit, as McLaren team boss Andreas Seidl has already pointed out, but he is clearly feeling better.
“I’m not at 100 per cent yet, but I can’t describe how much better I feel than this time last week,” Norris himself stressed. The condition, he says, is “99 or 90 per cent”. He only has a little sore throat and cough left, “but most of my fever and everything else is gone”.
The very fact that he can now give interviews again is a good sign. Because he had been struggling a lot for a while just to talk and breathe normally, the Brit tells us. “So I’m feeling much better. But I’m just not at 100 per cent yet, and that’s not nice here in Monaco. “
“In Monaco you always want to be at 100 per cent, so it’s going to be a tough weekend,” Norris looks ahead. Nevertheless, thanks to his improved condition, he can now enjoy driving more than in Barcelona and concentrate fully on it.
On Friday, that translated into a strong fifth place finish. “It was a good first day in Monaco, so I’m reasonably happy,” said the McLaren driver. “The car has been good so far. Similar to last year here. So the team has done a good job. I feel like I’m driving quite well already.”
“I think it’s very close with Mercedes and AlphaTauri. One lap I’m in front, the next lap they’re in front. It will be a good challenge. But hopefully we can stay in front. If we can do that and stay just behind Ferrari and Red Bull, we can be very happy with that.”
The aim, he said, was to finish the weekend as “best of the rest”. “It’s not going to be easy,” Norris knows. “I’m a bit surprised we’re ahead of Mercedes because I expected them to be ahead of us at the moment. The plan is to stay ahead of them. If we can do that, I’ll be very happy. “
