Lotus F1 Team driver Pastor Maldonado finished eighth in a highly eventful race at Circuit of The Americas, scoring four world championship points for the team.
The Venezuelan driver secured points for a third consecutive race but felt the car did not perform as strongly as he was expecting it too, feeling that they were stronger in qualifying than the race, a turnaround to what normally happens.
“We are in the points once again which is the main positive thing for the team,” said Maldonado. “It was quite a busy race with a lot of fighting around me and even some fighting with the car as it didn’t quite perform as expected.
“It was a little bit strange because we are normally quite strong in the races, better than in qualifying in fact. We hope to continue scoring strong points in the remaining races.”
Romain Grosjean sustained damage to his car at the first corner which led him to his retirement from the race at the end of lap 10, ending his chance of a good result having started from tenth on the grid.
“I had a good start but in the middle of the first corner I felt a hit from behind,” said Grosjean. “This gave me a puncture and the damage meant that the floor and braking cooling ducts were damaged.
“We tried continuing but the brake temperatures were just too high and we had to retire for safety reasons. It’s a shame because it would have been a good race as far as we know with the experience we have and the set-up we were on.
“Everything should have been quite nice but now we’ll never know!”
