Lando Norris has praised his McLaren team for their support after struggling with illness throughout the Brazilian Grand Prix weekend. The Briton was forced to skip media duties on the opening day of the event, having come down with suspected food poisoning, but returned to track action on Friday. Despite continuing to feel unwell, Norris qualified in P4 on the grid before finishing Saturday's Sprint race in seventh. His outing in Sunday's main race was less successful. Norris collided with Charles Leclerc on Lap 7 – for which he was given a five-second time penalty and two penalty points – before eventually retiring on Lap 50 with a mechanical issue.
Norris: Leclerc incident was 'a shame'
"My start today was good, but it was a disappointing Sunday for us," Norris said after the race at Interlagos. "Regarding the contact with Charles, I thought it was a racing incident. Of course, I didn't want contact, and I held my line as much as possible. "Maybe I could have given him 5cm more and he could have given me 5cm more but it's just a shame what happened."
Norris focused on Abu Dhabi after illness
Norris has signalled the team's intention to investigate the cause of his retirement. "For the rest of the race, we were off the pace," the driver – who celebrated his 23rd birthday on race day – explained. "I'd like to believe there was a little bit of damage because we were too slow today. I'm not sure why we stopped, the team will investigate." After a challenging few days, Norris paid tribute to the McLaren squad and vowed to focus on the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. "I've not been very well this weekend, but I've had a lot of support from the team, and we're now focusing on finishing strongly in Abu Dhabi," he added. Norris' teammate Daniel Ricciardo also retired from the race in Brazil after a first-lap collision with Kevin Magnussen, resulting in the team recording their first double DNF since 2017.
Most read
