Norris hopes to benefit from change of approach at Paul Ricard

Lando Norris says he will take a slightly different approach into the latest round of the 2018 Formula 2 Championship at Paul Ricard as he looks to return to winning ways. 

The Carlin driver extended his championship lead to 27 points over joint closest rivals Artem Markelov and Alexander Albon despite a scrappy weekend in Monaco which included a crash in qualifying and collision with MP Motorsport’s Ralph Boschung en route to recovering from 17th on the grid to sixth in the feature race, before taking third in the sprint race. 

While a consistent run of podiums and points finishes have strengthened Norris’ position in the drivers’ standings, he has been unable to add to his sole victory he claimed at Bahrain’s season-opening feature race. 

When asked how he would approach the weekend at Paul Ricard, Norris told Sky Sports F1: “Slightly differently I think. I’ve made some changes to my approach this weekend because since Bahrain nothing has gone as smoothly as I would have hoped. 

“Results-wise, they haven’t been as ideal as I would have liked. I can I’m leading the championship and I’ve got a bit of a gap but effectively I’ve not done well enough and I’m not pleased with myself. So I’ll approach it slightly differently and hopefully get a better result because of it.”

The McLaren reserve driver - who has recently been linked with replacing Brendon Hartley at Toro Rosso - recorded a victory at the French Grand Prix venue during his 2016 Formula Renault 2.0 title-winning campaign and is aiming to hit the ground running this weekend. 

“The main thing we’ve struggled with is being on the pace from FP1 onwards. We always have got quicker throughout the weekend, rather than starting in a strong position. Monaco we started off strong but I put it in the wall in qualifying. We weren’t able to improve from the mistakes. 

“This weekend hopefully I don’t make the same mistakes, I don’t mess up my qualifying laps or anything but we can start in a strong position and then work from there.”