Lando Norris made a surprising breakfast adjustment to his pre-race routine ahead of the 2024 Brazilian Grand Prix qualifying session which was moved to Sunday morning.
With the session rescheduled to 7:30 am on Sunday, the McLaren driver set his alarm for an unusually early wake-up time of 5:10am, and Norris also broke his longstanding Sunday race routine of not eating on race day.
“I’ve said a few times before. I don’t normally eat on a Sunday,” Norris told the press, including Total-Motorsport.com. “I don’t have coffees either. So I had nothing to really get me going too much.
“Maybe I had a bit of a slow start, but I had a Nutella sandwich, and that was all. I probably expected worse, but I think as soon as you jump in the car, your brain switches on and you’re kind of in that race mode, adrenaline kicks in.
“So it changed a bit for sure, normally would have had nice poached eggs on toast, but this morning, the Nutella sandwich was good enough.”
The abrupt switch in schedule and diet didn’t deter Norris. Not only did the change of pace and breakfast fuel help Norris shake things up, but it also seemed to serve him well as he clinched pole position for the race.
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Despite the challenges posed by the adjusted timing and breakfast shift, Norris adapted quickly, proving once again that he can excel under changing conditions at Interlagos.
Caffeine the order of the day for Russell and Tsunoda
Joining Norris at the front of the starting grid for the 2024 Brazilian GP were Mercedes driver George Russell and RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who had a rather different, and maybe more traditional, breakfast experience.
“Similar to Lando, sort of no breakfast. Similar had my my standard coffee before, which, on an empty stomach, made the start of Q1 a bit tricky,” Russell admitted.
While Tsunoda wants to keep the early Qualifying start time: “I got [my] best qualifying of my career. So I would prefer every day, every time, 7:30am qualifying. Preparation went well. I had a lot of coffee, a lot of caffeine which made it a bit too exciting in Q2 and Q3.”
