Pastor Maldonado

Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta (born March 10, 1985 in Maracay, Venezuela ) is a Venezuelan Formula One driver currently with the Williams team. Before making his Formula One debut in 2011, he won the 2010 GP2 championship. He became the first Venezuelan to win a Formula One Grand Prix when he won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix from his first pole position.

Formula Renault
Maldonado's first experience of formula racing began in Italy in 2003. He competed in the Italian Formula Renault Championship with Cram Competition, and was classified seventh in the drivers' championship. His notable results included three podium finishes and one pole position. Cram Competition also entered one round of the German Formula Renault Championship at Oschersleben.

In 2004, Maldonado ran a dual programme in Italian and Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup with Cram Competition. He won the Italian title, with eight wins and six pole positions from seventeen starts. In the European championship, he was classified eighth overall, with two wins. Maldonado also found the time to enter one round of the now defunct Formula Renault V6 Eurocup at Spa-Francorchamps, with a best finish of fifth place.

In November 2004, Maldonado was given an opportunity to test with the Minardi Formula One team at Misano in Italy. The team's former owner, Giancarlo Minardi, was present at the test and commented positively about Maldonado's performance.

Italian F3000
In 2005, Maldonado progressed out of Formula Renault, but did not get the opportunity to complete a full season in any one series. He made four starts in the Italian F3000 Championship with Sighinolfi Auto Racing, in which one race win at the Autodromo dell'Umbria was enough to finish ninth overall. He also entered nine races (and made seven starts) in the Spanish-based World Series by Renault, with a best finish of seventh. However, his participation in the WSR was marred by a four-race ban for dangerous driving. He failed to slow down at the scene of an accident at Monaco, despite the presence of warning flags, and struck and seriously injured a marshal.

Formula Renault 3.5
Maldonado secured a full-time drive in the Formula Renault 3.5 Series with Draco Racing in 2006. He was classified third overall, with three race wins, six further podium finishes, and five pole positions.

Controversy
In a season that was marked by controversy Maldonado could have won the title were it not for a disqualification from first place at Misano for a technical infringement. Draco Racing lodged an appeal and the results of the championship remained provisional until Italy's National Court of Appeal for Motorsport upheld the stewards' decision at a hearing in January 2007. The lost fifteen points would have been enough to move him up from third to first in the standings, ahead of Alx Danielsson and Borja García.

GP2 Series
Maldonado's performances in FR3.5 were enough to attract the interest of GP2 teams, and he signed a contract to drive for Trident Racing in 2007 after a successful test in late 2006. He took his first victory in only his fourth race in the series with a commanding win at Monaco. However, he had to miss the final four rounds of the season after breaking a collarbone during training, leaving him outside the championship top 10.

He moved to the Piquet Sports team for 2008, his second year in the series. At midseason he had two poles and two podiums. He had a farcical sprint race in the wet at Silverstone – he stalled on the dummy grid, picked up a penalty for speeding in the pitlane as he joined the race, another penalty for passing under yellow flags, and crashed into Adrián Vallés and Kamui Kobayashi on the final lap. He started at the back of the grid for the Hungary feature race, but he moved up to finish fifth after staying out for longer than any other driver, and setting a succession of quick laps on these worn tyres. Four podium finishes—including a win at Spa—in the final six races saw him rise to fifth place in the drivers' championship by the end of the season.

He signed to drive for the ART Grand Prix team during the 2009 season. As part of the deal, he also joined the team for three rounds of the 2008–09 GP2 Asia Series season. Maldonado was often overshadowed by team-mate and 2009 champion Nico Hülkenberg, but Maldonado still finished sixth overall, helping ART to the teams title. He competed in the first round of the 2009 Euroseries 3000 season at the Autódromo Internacional do Algarve for Teamcraft Motorsport to gain experience of the track for the GP2 season finale. Maldonado won the first race, having started from second position.

Maldonado drove for the Rapax Team in the 2010 GP2 Series season alongside Luiz Razia. He clinched the Championship in the penultimate event at Monza, Maldonado won six consecutive feature races on his way to winning the title (from Istanbul Park to Spa), which also took him to a total of ten race victories in GP2, which is a series record. Maldonado finished sixteen points ahead of Barwa Addax's Sergio Pérez. Rapax also won the Teams Championship, five points ahead of Barwa Addax.

Formula One
Maldonado was a target for a Campos Meta seat in. Campos team principal Adrian Campos said that Bruno Senna's team mate could be Pedro de la Rosa, Vitaly Petrov or Maldonado, but the team's financial problems and change of ownership changed the situation, and Karun Chandhok got the drive. It was then reported that Maldonado was close to signing a deal to be test and reserve driver for the Stefan Grand Prix team, which attempted to compete in the 2010 season following the withdrawal of the US F1 Team, which left a theoretical space for another new team. Stefan was barred from competing in the 2010 season.

Williams (2011–)
Towards the end of the 2010 season, Maldonado was linked to the Williams team for, replacing former GP2 team-mate Nico Hülkenberg alongside Rubens Barrichello. He took part in the end-of-season young driver test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, driving for Williams and Hispania Racing (the rebranded Campos team). On November 15, Williams confirmed that Hülkenberg had been dropped from the team's 2011 line-up, and Maldonado was duly announced as his replacement on December 1. In addition to his on-track record, Maldonado also brings sponsorship from the Venezuelan government (through the state-owned PDVSA oil company) to the team.

2011
Maldonado retired from his first race, the, due to transmission problems. In the, he failed to reach Q2 in qualifying and again dropped out of the race. He recorded his first finish in China, in eighteenth place. At the he reached Q3 for the first time, eventually qualifying in ninth position for the race. He made it into Q3 again in Monaco, qualifying eighth, and in the race was lying sixth with five laps remaining, when he collided with Lewis Hamilton, taking him out of the race. He then spun out of a very wet race in Canada. He then continued to have impressive qualifying pace with poor race pace at Britain, Germany, and Hungary, including a drive-through penalty at the latter for speeding in the pit lane. At the at Spa in qualifying, Maldonado was involved in an incident with Lewis Hamilton on an in-lap after Hamilton squeezed by him when both were on a hot lap. Maldonado appeared to swipe across Hamilton as they headed down to Eau Rouge. Maldonado received a five-place grid penalty for his actions and Hamilton a reprimand. But in the race he scored his first point in Formula One with a tenth place finish. Maldonado did not score any more points for the rest of the season, nor did he reach Q3 for the rest of the season. His poor end to the season was magnified in Abu Dhabi; where he qualified seventeenth and started twenty-third (after a ten-place grid penalty for using a ninth engine), and served a drive-through, and later a 30-second time penalty after the race, both for ignoring blue flags.

Maldonado finished nineteenth in the Drivers' Championship and on 1 December 2011, it was confirmed that he would be retained by Williams for the season.

2012
Maldonado began the season alongside fellow South American racer, Bruno Senna, for Williams. He started the season with promising pace, qualifying eighth for the. In the race, he was running strongly until he crashed out on the final lap, fighting with Fernando Alonso for fifth position. In the, Maldonado retired in the closing stages of the race while running in the points. He scored his first points of the season by finishing eighth in China. A puncture ended his race in Bahrain, after he qualified in seventeenth position. At the, Maldonado qualified second, next to Lewis Hamilton on the front row of the grid after strong pace from his Williams car during the race weekend. Maldonado was later promoted to his first pole position in his Formula One career after Hamilton was excluded from the results of qualifying, due to having insufficient fuel in his car. Maldonado was beaten to the first corner by Fernando Alonso, but regained the lead after the second round of pit stops. Maldonado held his lead after the third pit-stop phase, and held off Alonso and Kimi Räikkönen to win, becoming the first Venezuelan driver to finish on a Grand Prix podium in the process. During post-race celebrations, a fire engulfed the Williams pit, and Maldonado was seen carrying his cousin to safety.

At Monaco, he received a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Sergio Pérez during a practice session (which subsequently may have led to Pérez's crash in qualifying, which caused the session to be red-flagged) and an additional five-place penalty for a gearbox change, meaning he started twenty-fourth and last on the grid. He retired due to an accident at the start of the race, when he ran into the back of Pedro de la Rosa's HRT who also retired with rear wing damage. At the end of second qualifying session in Canada, Maldonado crashed into the infamous Wall of Champions at the end of the lap in which he a set the quickest sector 1 time and was on course to bump Jenson Button out of Q3. Maldonado finished the qualifying session seventeenth and started the race from twenty second position after a five-place grid penalty after he was forced to change his gearbox due to damage suffered in the crash. Maldonado made good progress in the first stint, running as high as tenth mid-race, however after his pitstop he dropped back to seventeenth and finished the race in fourteenth. In Europe, Maldonado qualified third but dropped to fifth after the start and tenth after pitting under a safety car halfway through the race. Maldonado then passed several drivers including Red Bull's Mark Webber and was running fourth in the closing stages of the race. On lap 56 (the penultimate lap of the race), Maldonado was battling with McLaren's Lewis Hamilton for third place, however Hamilton forced Maldonado off the track at turn 12 and Maldonado returned to track and collided with Hamilton in turn 13, with Maldonado losing steering on the high curbs. Maldonado was able to continue and finished tenth with a broken front wing; Hamilton retired after he crashed into the tyre wall. Maldonado blamed Hamilton for the incident, however the stewards gave Maldonado a 20-second time penalty which dropped Maldonado out of the points to twelfth position. Maldonado qualified seventh in the British Grand Prix and ran as high as sixth before a pit-stop on lap 11 which dropped him into the midfield. Maldonado was subsequently involved in a collision with Sergio Pérez, which dropped him to last while Pérez retired on the spot. Maldonado eventually finished sixteenth, a lap down on winner Mark Webber. In television interviews, Pérez was damning of Maldonado's driving, calling him too dangerous and claiming he ruined other people's races. Pérez also called for the stewards to take tough action against Maldonado. Maldonado said the collision was a racing incident. The stewards penalised Maldonado by a reprimand and a fine of €10,000 with two penalties given due to the "serious nature" of the incident.

In Germany, Maldonado qualified a strong sixth in the wet qualifying, however he lost pace from lap 12 of the race when he hit debris which damaged his car, and finished the race in fifteenth. In Hungary, Maldonado qualified eighth, but a poor start dropped him to twelfth after lap one and thirteenth after the pitstops. Maldonado received a drive-through penalty for "causing an avoidable collision" in an overtaking move on Force India's Paul di Resta for twelfth; he dropped behind di Resta after the penalty and finished thirteenth. Maldonado was eleventh in the World Championship on 29 points as Formula One entered a five-week summer break, with his only points finishes coming from his win in Spain and eighth in China.

At the Belgian GP Maldonado received a further three penalties. He was demoted from third on the grid to sixth for impeding Nico Hülkenberg in Q1. He then jumped the start of the race, and was deemed to cause a collision with Marussia's Timo Glock, resulting in two separate 5-place grid penalties, so was demoted by 10 places in Monza. Maldonado started the race in twenty-second and finished in eleventh, just 0.5 seconds behind Senna, who finished in the final points-paying position. In Singapore he qualified second, alongside pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton. In the race, he was in contention for a podium finish, retiring on lap 37 due to a hydraulic failure. In Japan Maldonado qualified fourteenth, starting twelfth and finished the race eighth, his first points finish since he won in Spain nearly five months earlier.

Williams' form took a turn for the worse in Korea and Maldonado finished in 14th place after qualifying 15th. He once again managed to get into Q3 in India, but a mistake on his final attempt left him 9th on the grid. His race was disappointing as he got his tyre punctured by Kobayashi after having passed the Sauber driver. He eventually finished 16th. Maldonado returned to the sharp end of the grid in Abu Dhabi where he qualified 4th, which became 3rd as Vettel was excluded from qualifying due to having insufficient fuel in his car. He kept 3rd place at the start and was running at the same pace as cars around him until his KERS unit failed after the first safety car period of the race. Without KERS his car lost pace and he fell back to eventually finish 5th. Maldonado finished the season with a ninth place from ninth on the grid in the USA and a DNF after a second lap crash from sixteenth from the grid after a ten place penalty for a third reprimand after missing a weighbridge check in Brazil, as he finished 15th in the Championship on 45 points, the lowest Championship standing for a driver who won a race during an F1 season. Maldonado also received 14 penalties throughout the season, five ahead of Sergio Pérez and Michael Schumacher, Maldonado's grid penalties for both driving offences and gearbox changes totaled to 38 grid places, 1.8 per race.

2013
On 28 November 2012, Maldonado was retained by Williams for the 2013 season, where he will be partnered by Finnish rookie Valtteri Bottas.

Career summary
* Season in progress.

Complete Formula Renault V6 Eurocup results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula Renault 3.5 Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Italian Formula 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Euroseries 3000 results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete GP2 Asia Series results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Complete Formula One results
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) $†$ Did not finish, but was classified as he had completed more than 90% of the race distance. * Season in progress.

Politics
Maldonado is an outspoken political figure, which is rare in the racing world. He considers himself a socialist and was a friend of late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. He was one of the guards of honour at Chávez's funeral.