Unwell Norris admits Spanish GP weekend “not my peak”

In the circumstances, Norris was pleased to have made the top 10 in Q2 for the Spanish GP before a track-limits penalty cost him the laptime that would have put him eighth in the session, leaving him stranded instead in 11th place.

Norris was subsequently able to view the FIA’s footage of his costly run wide at Turn 12 and accepted the decision given the current focus of the new race directors on the white line being the limit of the track.

But Norris admitted that he is feeling worse than he has done in a while.

“I’ve not been great all weekend, to be honest with you,” he said. “It’s not COVID. I’m just suffering with my throat and my eyes and seeing, which doesn’t help.

“I’ve got many things, my sleep and everything and energy levels is probably the worst I’ve had in a long time.

“Definitely not my peak this weekend. I was so happy even to be into Q3, and to do the lap I did, with how this weekend has gone so far. I was quite surprised by it. It just makes me feel good.”

Norris conceded the FIA videos, which he viewed when called over a separate unsafe release incident involving Lance Stroll, indicated that he had breached track limits.

“I mean it was as simple as it looked really,” he said. “I think the only thing was from the onboards, it looked like I was on the track, but from the outboards from the FIA, I was clearly off the track. So simple as that.

“I think what makes it so tricky on this corner is you have the gravel run-off, and you have 10cm or so of track which you can’t use before the gravel.

“And in some cases, it’s much easier to just say the gravel is the limit, and everyone pushes up to the gravel.

“And if you go off, there’s a there’s a punishment already. But I don’t know, it’s been a rule all season, the white line is the limit, so I just didn’t stick to it.”

Norris’s progress with the latest McLaren update package was not helped by him losing most of Friday’s FP2 session after damaging the car in a trip across the kerbs, obliging the team…