Barcelona winner Pastor Maldonado has gone from F1 glory to back-of-the-field ignominy in the space of less than two weeks.<\/p>\n
But as Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports, the Venezuelan – who last time out in Spain broke through with Williams’ first win in seven years – is lucky to be on Sunday’s grid at all.<\/p>\n
The FIA stewards, including 1992 world champion Nigel Mansell, imposed a severe ten-place grid penalty after ruling that the 27-year-old deliberately swerved into Sergio Perez during practice.<\/p>\n
Maldonado insists the crash was not revenge but simply a driving mistake on a slippery track.<\/p>\n
Team shareholder Toto Wolff even confronted Mansell about the apparent harshness of the penalty, to which Mansell reportedly replied: “Be happy that he’s even racing.<\/p>\n
“We were close to excluding him for the whole event,” the former Williams driver reportedly told Wolff.<\/p>\n
The final misery for Maldonado, who actually qualified ninth, is yet another grid penalty for an unscheduled gearbox change, as the result of damage following his post-Perez collision crash.<\/p>\n
He will line up 24th and last.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
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