Being ill not slowing me down in Austria, Norris insists

In brief

Being ill not slowing me down – Norris

Lando Norris insists he is still able to race at 100% in Austria, despite being under the weather all weekend.

“I can’t say how much it’s affecting me,” Norris said. “It’s not helping, that’s probably the main thing. But I wouldn’t say anything that’s changing my performance on track. It’s not to that level.

“Small things away from the track and just being tired and not sleeping good and that kind of stuff. So I’m sure [it’s affecting me] a little bit, but nothing that I would use as an excuse to help me on track.”

Aston Martin skipped lunch to make set-up changes

Fernando Alonso says his Aston Martin mechanics skipped their lunch break to make drastic changes to his car’s set-up between the sprint race, where he finished 16th, and grand prix qualifying, where he took 15th on the grid.

“Tough qualifying, tough weekend so far for us,” Alonso told the official F1 channel. “We are not fast enough to fight for higher positions.

“But the team are still trying everything they can. They didn’t even have time to eat today, to have lunch, because we changed the car completely form the sprint race to qualifying.

“We changed completely the whole set-up, trying something different. We’re still more or less in the same positions. So it’s not a problem with set-up – we fundamentally don’t have the pace.”

Aron content with being winless

Formula 2 championship leader Paul Aron says he is not concerned by not yet having won a race this season despite continuing to grow his lead in the drivers’ championship with another podium finish in yesterday’s sprint race.

“In Formula 2 and Formula 3, consistency is more important than race wins,” Aron told media including RaceFans. “We can see it here, I’m leading the championship and I haven’t got any wins.

“I think the reason is because there’s so many things that are out of your control that can go wrong. Obviously all the drivers are young and optimistic, so going all out in the races is always very risky. Sometimes it rewards you with wins, but often it can also reward no points at all. I would much rather be the championship leader with no wins than a person with two or three race wins but further down the order.”

Links

Motor racing links of interest:

British Grand Prix director defends F1 ticket prices after Hamilton criticism (Guardian)

Stuart Pringle: ''We fully support Lewis’s comments. We have a greater number of our lowest price general admission tickets available this year compared to 2023.''

Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso have combined age of 81 and are inspiring title hopefuls to delay retirement (Talk Sport)

'Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso's longevity will pave the way for racing drivers competing into their forties ‘becoming more common’. That is the view of Formula E championship contender Mitch Evans, whose own title hopes reach crunch time this weekend.'

Crawford eyeing Spielberg Feature Race podium after coming through the field in the Sprint (Formula 2)

''I honestly think we can fight for a podium. We will have to make the race strategy call, but I think we have good pace. We were fighting with the guys starting on the front row like Hauger and Duerksen. I think I passed Duerksen and was the same pace and catching Hauger, so we have the pace of the guys at the front so it's just about getting the right strategy to be up there.''

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Social media

Notable posts from X (formerly Twitter), TikTok and more:

Hello, I wanted to say big apologies what I said in the radio today. Obviously I didn’t use it intentionally and was completely misunderstanding from myself that exact meaning of it. I now have better understanding for what the word means and am very apologetic for what I said.…

— 角田裕毅/Yuki Tsunoda (@yukitsunoda07) June 29, 2024

The @FIA has toughened up its response to drivers using offensive language on the radio.

In 2020 @Max33Verstappen, after a collision with @Lance_Stroll, referred to him using the same word @YukiTsunoda07 was just fined €40,000 for uttering, but received no punishment.#F1 pic.twitter.com/bUCRyVmjas

— Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine) June 29, 2024

The moment that changed EVERYTHING 😳

Championship leader Nick Cassidy loses it on the penultimate lap of the @Hankook_Sport #PortlandEPrix. pic.twitter.com/WQMeDBaL4A

— Formula E (@FIAFormulaE) June 29, 2024

What a day! I’ve had my eyes on @FIAFormulaE since the series’ inception and it was an incredible experience to get back behind the wheel of an open wheel car. This series continues to inspire and innovate and I look forward to working with them to further push boundaries. 👊 pic.twitter.com/TngHnO4Vrk

— Robert Wickens (@robertwickens) June 29, 2024

#INDYCAR is taking innovation to a whole new level.

Go inside the Hybrid Power Unit with @Hinchtown ahead of its much-anticipated debut at Mid-Ohio. pic.twitter.com/WRx1ZtKap4

— NTT INDYCAR SERIES (@IndyCar) June 29, 2024

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• Find more official F1 accounts to follow in the F1 Twitter Directory

Comment of the day

Should McLaren have used team orders to get Lando Norris ahead of Oscar Piastri in yesterday’s sprint race, given Norris is Max Verstappen’s nearest rival in the championship? No, argues BasCB…

I actually think there was no good reason to change the cars around after Piastri overtook Norris. As Norris mentioned after the race, they knew they had to do it in the first few laps. Since he let himself be repassed by Max and then Piastri got by too, that was it. Maybe if Piastri had not been able to get by, Norris would have been able to stay close enough to Max to have a shot right at the end, but it would probably have been just running close to him like he was now chasing Piastri.

And let’s remember this is a sprint race, where the difference between second and third is only a single point. For the team there was no difference at all, so why would you upset Piastri by asking him to give up a place he earned on track?
BasCB

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Rhys, Mike-E and Optmist!

On this day in motorsport

• 5 years ago today Max Verstappen won the Austrian Grand Prix after passing Charles Leclerc – and following a three-hour investigation by the stewards