Lando Norris has said that he now feels more aware and confident than during last weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix, where he struggled with illness.

Norris’s Spanish Grand Prix weekend was mired by illness, with the Brit struggling with tonsillitis causing him to miss media obligations on the Friday morning.

He wasn’t feeling much better during the race, and in the days that followed, reports emerged that Norris had only gotten eight hours of sleep in the days that followed Catalunya. 

Despite further rumours that he might miss Monte Carlo due to him still suffering from the side effects of his illness, Norris announced on Twitter that he was ready to drive, and in spite of not feeling 100%, he out-qualified Daniel Ricciardo for the sixth time this year managing an outstanding fifth on the grid.

In a McLaren press conference that MotorLAT attended with other media outlets, Norris discussed how his condition improved in the week between the two races even if he was still not fully fit. 

“It’s been a long week because of the suffering with the amount that I did last week with tonsillitis and fever; then racing just made it even worse than it needed to be, but it was something that had to be done. It took a big toll on me physically, so I struggled a lot Sunday night.”

“Throat wise, I am much in a much better place I can eat and drink now, which is a really good start; it’s something I couldn’t do last week, but still, just physically, I didn’t sleep at all last week so just catching up on that which is something you can’t just catch up in a couple of days it takes time, so I am not 100% now with how red my face is and theirs a few things I am still struggling with, but I am much better I am more confident getting into the car and on top of things rather than being a passenger which is tough as especially in Monaco you need to be on top of everything, and it’s where you want to be physically 100%, and I know that I am quite a way off that still even though I feel like I can do a good job.”

But Norris was self-critical of his performance as he believes that he could have been higher on the grid if it weren’t for a couple of mistakes. Nonetheless, he is still satisfied with fifth on the grid. 

“When I say I am way off, it could be a tenth, tenth and a half, but if I talked today about a tenth and a half and a couple of little mistakes that I made, there's a chance I could have been higher so I think there's some confidence from within that if things had been perfect they could have been even better today, but nevertheless I am happy with where I am P5’s a good result for us.”