Pastor Maldonado felt the pace was there to qualify higher than fourteenth on the grid at the Hungaroring after a first corner lock-up on his final qualifying lap cost him enough time to miss out.
The Lotus F1 Team driver had already been compromised by the red flag caused by the McLaren-Honda of Fernando Alonso stopping on track, but hopes to rectify his weekend on Sunday with a drive into the points, something he feels is possible with the race pace of the E23-hybrid.
“We had potential for Q3, the pace was there early on, I did a good lap in Q1 and placed in the top ten but unfortunately we were not able to repeat this in Q2,” said Maldonado.
“We didn’t have as good a progression as we would have liked, especially with the red flag, and then I locked up in turn one which compromised my lap time. I don’t think this is a position that is representative for us.
“We’ll see tomorrow, the race pace is there – we showed that in Q1 – the potential is there so I think we can put together a good race and score points.”
