After a miserable start to the 2014 season, Pastor Maldonado was feeling positive after securing his best finish of the year at the Austrian Grand Prix today.
The Venezuelan driver may have crossed the line in 12th place and a lap down, but the result does see him move off the bottom of the drivers’ championship, and he was pleased with how his race at the Red Bull Ring went.
“For me in the car it was actually quite a good weekend,” Maldonado explained after the race. “We finished the race which is positive and we made the most of the package we had today.
“We are losing a lot of time in the slow speed corners and we need to keep improving in this area to be more like our good high speed corner performance.”
After qualifying yesterday, Maldonado expressed his frustration over the Renault engine which is less powerful than its Mercedes and Ferrari rivals. Although this has been a recurring problem in 2014, it was particularly damaging here. To make matters worse, a brake problem on his car meant that he was not totally comfortable, but he was still pleased with the race as a whole.
“Unfortunately we had some brake issues from very early on in the race so I wasn’t able to fight others around me, even though it was nice to be running in the top ten during the course of the race,” he said. “After that, it was a case of saving fuel and brakes to get to the chequered flag. I think Silverstone will suit us much better.”
Maldonado’s teammate, Romain Grosjean, also struggled, and could only cross the line in 14th place and one minute behind his teammate.
