Lotus: Romain Grosjean acknowledges his mistake in Montreal
Romain Grosjean only finished 10th in Canada due to contact with Will Stevens' Manor, which resulted in a five-second penalty. As for Pastor Maldonado, he scored his first points of the season with a strong 7th place finish.
Since the beginning of the season, Pastor Maldonado has had his share of bad luck and incidents that have forced him to retire. In Montreal, he managed to make the most of his Mercedes engine to score his first points since Austin 2014. With a final seventh place, he achieved the third-best performance of his career: « Finally, we’re in the points! I think now that we’ve started scoring points, we have the potential to have a great season because we really have good pace. »
To get rid of Nico Hülkenberg’s Sahara Force India, the Venezuelan had to adopt an aggressive strategy: “We had to stop early to overtake Nico Hülkenberg, which made the end of the race quite difficult for us. As a result, I could no longer defend myself.”
He still managed to get ahead of his teammate, the French Romain Grosjean, who started fifth on the grid. Grosjean had a collision with Will Stevens while lapping the Manor. He doesn’t try to put the blame on his rival: « It can be difficult here with the traffic, and I was held up several times even though there were blue flags. I thought I was ahead of the Manor, but I quickly realized that wasn’t the case. It’s entirely my fault, and I apologize. You never stop learning as a driver. »
Federico Gastaldi, the deputy team principal, could be satisfied with having both of his drivers in the points for the first time in two years. There is a certain sense of relief in his words regarding the millions PDVSA pays to have Pastor Maldonado racing: « For Pastor, this should be a turning point in the season. I thank all his fans in Venezuela and PDVSA for their trust in us. It has always been our goal to score points with both cars. We want to do it again for the rest of the season. »
