Pastor Maldonado

**Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta** wass a Venezuelan professional racing driver, who competed in Formula 1.5 for the Williams (2011–2013) and Lotus (2014–2015) teams and as a Pirelli test driver until 2017.

## Personal Life

Maldonado was born on 9 March 1985 in Maracay, Venezuela. He showed an early interest in racing, preferring to watch his uncles driving their YMCA go-karts. When Maldonado was four years old, he started competing in BMX racing and won a national championship.

## F1.5 Career

### Williams (2011-2013)

#### 2011 Season

Maldonado retired from his first race, the Australian Grand Prix, due to transmission problems. In the Malaysian Grand Prix, he failed to reach Q2 in qualifying and again dropped out of the race. He recorded his first finish in China, in tenth place. Maldonado finished a high of 5th in the season, at the Singapore Grand Prix and also the Belgian Grand Prix.

He finished the season 12th in the championship with 40 points, a defficit to teammate Barrichello by 37 points.

#### 2012 Season

Maldonado began the 2012 season alongside Brazil's Bruno Senna, for Williams. Maldonado finished 7th at the first race of the season, clinching the fastest lap of the race. At the Malaysian Grand Prix, Maldonado retired in the closing stages of the race while running in the points. He took his first podium of his career at the next race in China, finishing third. At the Spanish Grand Prix, Maldonado qualified on pole for the first time, a race he would go on to win to take his maiden win and become known as an all time classic. During post-race celebrations, a fire engulfed the Williams pit, and Maldonado was seen carrying his cousin to safety.

In Europe, Maldonado qualified on pole again, however fell to 8th for the finish of the race. Just three race's later he took pole at Hungary a race he would again to finish on the podium, finishing 5th. Pole position number four came in Singapore, during the race he was in contention for the win but retired on lap 37 due to a hydraulic failure. In Japan, he returned to the podium for the first time since his win in Spain five months previous, to finish third. At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Maldonando took his second win of the year.

Maldonado finished the season 9th in the championship with 148 points, the highest amount of points he would score over a season in his career. Maldonado's teammate, Senna, scored 172 points over the season.

#### 2013 Season

On 28 November 2012, Maldonado was retained by Williams for the 2013 season, where he was partnered by Finnish rookie Valtteri Bottas. At the start of the season Maldonado commented that the new FW35 chassis was a step back towards where the team were in 2011. He scored his only podium of the season, when he finished third in Hungary.

2013 was the first time Maldonado finished ahead of his teammate in the championship, outscoring Bottas by 4 points. Pastor scored 110 points.

### Lotus (2014-2015)

#### 2014 Season

On 29 November 2013, Maldonado was signed by Lotus to partner Romain Grosjean in 2014.

Maldonado failed to finish his first two races in the season after crashing with the Sauber of Gutiérrez at Bahrain. Pastor took his first DNS of his career at Monaco with a fuel pump issue. He took his first and only podium of the season at the American Grand Prix to finish third.

Grosjean outscored Maldonado by 24 points in the championship.

#### 2015 Season

Maldonado failed to score points until round 7 in the season, failing to finish five of the first six rounds and not scoring in the other. When he did score, in Canada, he took a podium finish with P3, which would be followed by a fourth place at the next round. Maldonado was originally due to continue with Lotus for 2016, however, the team was bought by Renault, and Maldonado's contract was terminated following several problems with Maldonado's sponsor, PDVSA. He was replaced by former McLaren driver Kevin Magnussen.

Over the season, he finished 11th with 71 points, compared to Grosjean with 137 points.