Lando Norris said he was in “a lot of pain” during practice for the Styrian Grand Prix and reduced the amount of running which was planned for him.
“I’ve been struggling a bit physically with something,” said the McLaren driver. “We’ve had to cut down quite a few of the laps that we were planning to do just to make sure I’m in good condition for tomorrow.”“It’s just something in my chest or something,” he explained. “I hit the brakes and then the compression, it spikes up massively so I’m just afraid to brake anywhere, which is not ideal around here.
“I don’t know what it is, something we have to look into and try and fix for the race.”
Speaking after the session, Norris said the problem had set him back a lot on the opening day of running.
“I feel fine now and walking around, it’s something that when I’m driving just causes me a lot of pain, particularly in the high-speed corners and when I’m braking. I’ve spoken to my specialist and he tried to figure it out, but it’s not as as obvious as just pointing it out and so on.
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“I’ve been on painkillers and whatever, but it’s been setting me back a lot today, so it’s been pretty frustrating. I’ve not felt confident in the car in terms of pushing it and so on. Hopefully I can get fixed and I’ll be ready for the next one.”
Norris has been given a three-place grid penalty for Sunday’s race for what he called a “silly move” during the first practice session. He was found to have overtaken Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri while passing yellow flags which were being waved after Nicholas Latifi’s Williams came to a stop.
“I saw the yellow flag,” said Norris. “I was on a ‘push lap’ at the two other guys were on a slow lap or an out-lap. And they pulled over to let me past knowing that I was on my push lap.
“I let off when I saw the yellow flags and I braked but I just haven’t braked and completely gone to the same speed as them. So I’ve slowed down, I’ve gone away from everyone, I did what I had to do in terms of driving cautiously and being prepared to stop and whatever. But I just rolled a bit more speed than what the other guys did, I ended up passing them.
“So the rules are the rules, a bit unfortunate because I left off, but I just didn’t do everything that I should have done. A bit of a silly move by me.”
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2020 F1 season
- Pictures: Wrecked chassis from Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball crash to go on display
- Bottas vs Rosberg: Hamilton’s Mercedes team mates compared after 78 races each
- F1 revenues fell by $877 million in Covid-struck 2020 season
- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
RocketTankski
10th July 2020, 18:23
Ribs maybe? Hope it’s not the Covid.
David B
10th July 2020, 18:36
He did joke last week that Zak Brown had broken his ribs when he hugged him
Peyton
10th July 2020, 19:00
He did say Zak Brown hugged him so hard he’s pretty sure he broke his rib. It would be quite hilarious if that is it.
nickkkk
10th July 2020, 22:18
Yep. I was going to comment the same thing. That is exactly what he said.
He is actually quite a small guy it could well be that. He could have done some other kind of celebratory thing. When you are excited you do things you don’t normally. I remember being quite excited and jumping down a load of stairs when I was a kid onto some concrete. Ouch. That was a mistake.
Lyle Clarke
11th July 2020, 1:45
Exactly what I came here to comment, oh Zak, what have you done?
Julian Sark @sarknews (@juliansark)
11th July 2020, 10:20
My first thought as well.
I have cracked a rib twice, this sure sounds like it. The one time I managed to crack a rib by merely lifting a flat screen TV, barely pressed against my body. Sometimes it seems to doesn’t take much if the circumstances are just right.
Let’s hope he has a speedy recovery. But if it’s a rib … eh, two weeks at least.
elchinero (@elchinero)
10th July 2020, 18:28
“Painkillers”? PEDs? “Oxy”? Leaves a lot to be desired …
DonSmee (@david-beau)
10th July 2020, 19:59
Time to get a girlfriend to train the back Lando.
H
10th July 2020, 20:21
Or boyfriend
thejerk
11th July 2020, 17:33
Not for ~97% of the Earth’s population.