Pastor: I have been unlucky

Pastor Maldonado has again hit the news for the wrong reasons, but the Williams driver has again vowed not to change his style…

Another race weekend, another incident. Pastor Maldonado has again hit the news for the wrong reasons, but the Williams driver has again vowed not to change his style.

Just a few weeks after being slapped with a 20-second post-race penalty for running into Lewis Hamilton during the closing stages of the European GP, the 27-year-old was at it again at Silverstone on Sunday. This time he was reprimanded and fined 10,000 Euro for colliding with Sauber’s Sergio Perez.

Asked if he would change his approach following the latest incident, the Telegraph quotes Maldonado as saying: “No, because I think I have been unlucky.

“I accept the penalty for the incident with Lewis, but I was a bit unlucky because I hit a kerb and had no traction at the front. It was also 1.5 laps from the end.

“Yesterday was different. The race was just starting, I was on cold tyres, had no angle to turn and I lost the car. It is clear.

“I was even gentle with Kimi (Raikkonen), giving him position. I drove carefully because the race is long and degradation is high.

“In previous races at the start of the year I was very clean, I had no problem. I was even fighting more because I was in the middle of the grid.”

The Venezuelan has failed to pick up a single point since surprising the whole F1 community with his race victory in Spain in the middle of May.

However he insists he is just going through a “bad and unlucky” phase.

“I have the team’s support,” he said.

“I am just passing through a bad and unlucky moment when I don’t get any points following my victory.

“It is frustrating. We have lost a lot of points, but we have everything in place to get some points from the next race and in the second part of the season.

“We can recover. It is not the end of the season. I have a lot of confidence in the team and they have confidence in me and we need to keep on pushing.”