Pastor Maldonado has said he was actually quite surprised by the excellent pace of the Lotus E22 during the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend.
Maldonado had to retire on lap 21 when his car suffered a power unit related issue, something Lotus Deputy Team Principal Federico Gastaldi reckoned cost the Venezuelan a ‘strong points finish’.
“We had a similar problem to Saturday where we lost a lot of power [in Q1],” Maldonado explained back in the pits. “It’s a shame as the race was going very well, and we had an excellent pace – to be honest I was quite surprised by the car.
“The strategy was good, as we were looking for one stop whereas all the other cars were planning two stops, so we were looking very strong today and even without stopping we were on a similar pace with the other teams.