Formula 1

Maldonado Joy Tempered By Grid Penalty

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Pastor Maldonado will drop from third to sixth on the grid for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix after he was judged by the stewards to have blocked Nico Hulkenberg in Q1. Although disappointed, the Venezuelan was still pleased with his pace and believes that will stand him in good stead for tomorrow.

“This morning didn’t go as well for us as we had hoped, but during qualifying I adapted myself to the car and the changing track conditions which were improving all the time. After Q1, I saw the potential so we just had to put it together for the rest of qualifying. Obviously, I am disappointed to be sixth following the penalty, but it’s still a good result so I’m happy for the team. We will now prepare for the race and I am very much looking forward to pushing for a good result tomorrow.”

Bruno Senna couldn’t match his teammate’s heroics and was the slowest man in Q2, placing him on the ninth row for the Grand Prix, largely due to a front wing problem. The Brazilian is taking heart from previous recovery drives this year and remains hopeful of scoring points.

“I’m slightly frustrated with qualifying as things just didn’t seem to come together today. The spin was unfortunate and there seemed to be a bit of damage on the car from that. It’s frustrating to be further back than we should be but we’ve scored points from those positions before, so we need to keep our heads up and make sure we do it again.”

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