“I don’t believe a word he says”: Lando Norris believes Fernando Alonso is “playing mind games”

“I don’t believe a word he says”: Lando Norris believes Fernando Alonso is “playing mind games”

Although Lando Norris is relatively a newbie to the game of Formula 1 when his career is compared to Fernando Alonso’s two-decade-long career in F1, the young Briton has already learnt how Alonso is prone to playing some “mind games” to ward off his rivals on the racetrack. On Saturday, after the thunderous Qualifying Session at Circuit Paul Ricard, Lando Norris got the P5 position separating the two Silver Arrows of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. And in the seventh spot was Fernando Alonso in his Alpine.

Now, in this season of Formula 1 2022, the most prominent teams who stand a chance of winning the Championship have already been determined to be Ferrari and Red Bull, while Mercedes is being considered for the third spot. Following that, there seems to be quite a fight for the fourth spot in the Championship table between Alpine, McLaren and even Alfa Romeo. As of now, McLaren and Alpine are both at 81 points, with the Woking-based team taking the fourth spot as it has won a podium which Alpine hasn’t attained.

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Lando Norris stays wary of Fernando Alonso ahead of the French GP

McLaren driver Lando Norris
McLaren driver Lando Norris

As McLaren’s chief rival for this season is Alpine, it goes without saying that Lando Norris has to size up Fernando Alonso ahead of the French Grand Prix since both their teams have equal scores going into the Circuit Paul Ricard on Sunday. When Lando secured a better starting position in the Qualifying, Fernando Alonso talked to the media saying that his car was slower than Norris’ McLaren. But Lando Norris knows better than to get relieved by Alonso’s confession.

Lando Norris said, “Oh that’s Fernando. He’s playing mind games with you. He knew I was coming here [the media pen] after. I don’t believe a word he says.”

Continuing his discussion about the Qualifying for the French Grand Prix, Lando Norris also said, “We weren’t expecting Q3 today so P5 is a good step and I’m hoping a similar scenario happens tomorrow where we’re thinking it might be a tough race, but hopefully it’s just a really easy one. We’ll see but I’m expecting a good race and a good battle with Fernando.”

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