Lotus F1 Team
Lotus deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi praised the efforts of Pastor Maldonado during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Lotus struggled for pace at Monza and while Maldonado came home in a lowly 14th place, Gastaldi was quick to heap praise on his Venezuelan charge.
"We saw a very strong race today from Pastor who didn’t put a foot wrong and extracted the maximum from our current package," he said.
"14th isn’t where we want to finish but today’s race did give us some signs of encouragement. Pastor’s pace was much closer to that of the cars in front of us, and he drove an exemplary race," added trackside operations director Alan Permane.
Maldonado said that he tried to attack the cars ahead, but his aim was ultimately unattainable.
"I made a good start and a strong first lap which gave me a better position than on the grid as I was able to get past the Saubers," he said.
"From there I tried to attack the Toro Rosso ahead of me, but their configuration for the straights was too much to overcome. This meant we were running at a consistent pace without any fear from the cars behind, but equally without pace in the right place to attack the cars ahead. It was quite uneventful today but good to get to the finish line."
