Norris backed to overcome health 'struggle'

McLaren team principal Andreas Seidl is confident Lando Norris can battle through his illness at the São Paulo Grand Prix.

Norris was excused from his media duties on Thursday at Interlagos after contracting suspected food poisoning, leading to the team preparing a seat for reserve driver Nyck de Vries.

Norris, who celebrates his 23rd birthday today [Sunday], returned to the track on Friday and has so far completed all four on-track sessions, finishing seventh in the sprint race.

But following the 100-kilometre race, Norris was again allowed to skip some of his media duties after conceding he was not 100 per cent.

Asked if Norris will be able to manage the full grand prix distance, Seidl replied: "I’m confident that after a good rest overnight, he will be fine.

“If you look at what he pulled off in the sprint, how he tackled the race and was managing the tyres to make sure he was there when he needed to be to get the move done on Kevin [Magnussen], we didn’t see that there was anything missing.”

Team-mate Daniel Ricciardo spoke briefly to Norris in the media pen following the sprint, and conceded: "Clearly he’s still struggling."

Despite this, the Australian backed Seidl's assessment that Norris had been able to prevent his condition from affecting his on-track performance.

“I saw the race trace and it looks like he got the most out of the car in terms of all the cars in front, I think, are quicker cars," added Ricciardo.

“Obviously, it was a shorter race and I think the grand prix will probably test him a bit more but I think he’s still doing a good job.”

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