Lando Norris “Will Strike Back” After Spanish GP Setback: McLaren

The Spanish Grand Prix managed to turn the fortunes around quite dramatically for the McLaren drivers. While Daniel Ricciardo finally found his form during the race, it was a rather awful outing for Lando Norris, whose poor qualifying performance came back to haunt him on Sunday.

The Briton struggled to overtake on the tricky Catalunya circuit. And the end result he could manage was an average P8. However, McLaren’s Andreas Seidl opined that there is no need to pick Norris up after the tough weekend. Furthermore, he reckoned the Brit will get himself back on his feet for the weekend in Monaco.

Seidl’s view on Lando Norris amidst a tough weekend in Spain

As reported by Motorsport Week, the German felt that Norris has to acknowledge the rather poor weekend in Barcelona and move on to the next race. “I think there’s no need to pick him up, in the end we have to accept how this weekend went,” he said.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to finish higher [in qualifying], despite having a car that had more potential. We all know about the circumstances. So it’s important also to simply move on.”

Norris messed up his qualifying lap, early on in Q1, when a much slower Nikita Mazepin took the racing line, forcing the former to hit hard on the brakes.

Hence, Norris had to use an extra set of soft tires in Q1, ultimately leaving him with only a used set of tires for the final and a much more crucial Q3 run. Despite the efforts, Norris managed only a P9 for the race.

Seidl points out the positives from Spanish GP

Of course, it was a rather average weekend for Norris, considering the incredible amount of pace McLaren had in the bag. However, Seidl is quite confident that Norris will strike back over the upcoming race weekend in Monaco.

“I think you need to look also at the positive side, he could move up one position on a track where it’s simply difficult to overtake. And it’s important that we still managed to score 12 points on a race weekend where Ferrari was quite strong,” he said.

“Lando, so far, he had an incredible start into the season with incredible performances so there’s no need to pick him up. He’s fine. And I’m sure he will strike back together with us the next races.”

Overall, an interesting weekend awaits the F1 fans in Monaco. Although the circuit offers no room for overtaking, the cramped mid-field and their strategies will be interesting to watch. So, who is going to burst ahead in this intense battle?

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