Pastor Maldonado had a relatively quiet afternoon at the Sochi Autodrom as the Lotus F1 Team driver brought his car home in eighth place for his fourth points finish of the season, with this becoming seventh following Kimi Raikkonen’s post-race penalty.
The Venezuelan felt his afternoon in Russia was ‘a bit tough’ as he suffered with the performance of his Supersoft Pirelli tyres, at least in the early stages of his stint following his pit stop, but Maldonado was happy to come away with a points finish.
“It was a bit tough today but we opted for the right strategy from the beginning starting on the soft tyres and going longer on the first run,” said Maldonado.
“Unfortunately we lost a lot of time on the second stint with the new super soft tyres. Our car didn’t perform as expected at the beginning of the run but then after a few laps we started to get back into the rhythm.
“We scored points today which is very positive for the team and hopefully we can continue to do so in the next races.”
