The same was probably going to happen again, especially given Maldonado’s lack of consistency. He won one race and finish in ninth place. On and off-track, he was the hero of the day. Wrong. WhatsApp. Venezuela's Pastor Maldonado claimed his maiden Formula One win, and handed Williams their first since 2004 with a dramatic victory in the Spanish Grand Prix here on Sunday. From the section. Because of that, he remains highly ridiculed to this day, with the fact that he won a race being considered as hilarious as it was heroic. Finishing one was a rarity; winning one seemed unthinkable, even in a year where the first four rounds had four different victors. The Venezuelan arrived in F1 in 2011 with Williams as GP2 champion, and the very next year delivered the team a first win in over seven years with a dazzling performance in Spain. “It is a pleasure to be part of Williams, which is a legendary team. It was the only time Maldonado would ever finish on the podium in five full F1 seasons, his next best result being P5 in Abu Dhabi towards the end of that 2012 campaign. Tap to unmute. But we were also very fast in the race before and after.”, Follow us on Twitter @Planet_F1 and like our Facebook page, ‘No conspiracy’ in shock Maldonado victory. Copy link. 31 people were injured, and Maldonado was pictured carrying his 12-year-old cousin, who had a broken foot, out of the smoke. His and his team’s celebrations were cut short when, less than two hours after the end of the race, the Williams garage set alight. But just under a month after team owner Sir Frank Williams had turned 70, the Venezuelan driver started from pole position after Lewis Hamilton had been put to the back of the grid for running out of fuel at the end of qualifying – and Maldonado went on to win the race. And the fire was dangerous, catastrophic. 13 May 2012. Wood then “improved the brake cooling relatively quickly” – with great success. That shows just how big a shock the victory was, but also just how good he was that day. Pastor Maldonado recalls his Spanish GP win — and F1 title dream. But the Venezuelan says that the front row is his natural habitat — and his critics don't realise the sacrifices he's made. Oh Pastor, you were a fast driver but sadly you were also prone to make stupid mistakes over and over again. He’s a Formula 1 race-winner, and no amount of jokes can take that away from him. Robert Kubica. Date published: March 9 2021. Pastor Maldonado signed for Williams in 2011 after winning the GP2 championship the previous year.. Maldonado started karting at the age of seven and soon began racing in national competitions. As the gap between him and his rival slowly shrunk, he remained composed under enormous pressure and never looked like losing top spot. View a list of F1 wins by Pastor Maldonado and statistics including wins by season, constructor, Grand Prix and circuit. For the next 30-odd laps though, the Venezuelan was flawless. Maldonado was in his second year with Williams and arrived at the Circuit de Catalunya in May 2012 having never previously finished higher than eighth in a Formula 1 race. While everybody was trying to figure that out, he was already dreaming of taking his first victory. Even so, you couldn’t help but think that Alonso was still the favourite. The win was now Maldonado’s to lose. DriverDB Rating graph. In zijn laatste twee seizoenen reed hij voor het Lotus F1 Team naast Romain Grosjean. "Pastor Maldonado is an enigma. “We stood on the track and talked about the volume flow of the air that goes through the rim and always cools the tyre. As he was lifted on to the shoulders of Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen on the podium, he was surely as happy as he’d ever been, but the drama wasn’t over yet. He ultimately crossed the line three seconds clear to become Venezuela’s first-ever race winner and give Williams their first victory in eight years. In 1999, aged 14, he moved to Europe to further his racing career. Shopping. Pastor Maldonado's F1 career has come to an end after 95 Grands Prix and the man synonymous with accidents and incidents has now left the stage, no … One of F1’s biggest shocks: Maldonado’s 2012 win. Williams driver Pastor Maldonado wins his first Grand Prix, holding off home favourite Fernando Alonso in his Ferrari in the Spanish Grand Prix. Get your hands on the official Williams 2020 collection via the Formula 1 store. Share. Maldonado had enough pace to stay within touching distance of the leader during the first stint, and in the second, closed the gap from 3.5 seconds to 1.5 in just nine laps. Incredible photo of Pastor Maldonado carrying cousin away from fire in Williams garage after Grand Prix victory #f1 pic.twitter.com/EjiND9Wu, — Rachel Brookes (@RachelBrookesTV) May 13, 2012. After five seasons, two teams, one win and crash after crash after crash, Pastor 'Crashtor' Maldonado is … In perhaps the strongest car he’d ever driven in F1, the Maldonator looked good, finishing in the top five in Q1 and going quickest in Q2. Twitter. Pastor Maldonado wins in Barcelona! He couldn’t, could he? Facebook. Heading into the 2012 season,  it’s fair to say the Venezuelan was particularly highly rated in the world of Formula 1 after being involved in a number of incidents and making plenty of mistakes in his first year on the grid. Then everyone copied it and Williams fell behind again. Alex Wurz has shot down a conspiracy theory surrounding one of F1’s biggest shock results of the past decade – Pastor Maldonado’s Spanish Grand Prix victory in 2012. As upsets go, Pastor Maldonado's 2012 Spanish Grand Prix win is one of the most unlikely F1 has seen. Wins for Pastor Maldonado. Pastor Maldonado Crash Compilation. Amongst the current field of Grand Prix drivers there are none who receive more frequent criticism than Pastor Maldonado.Over the last four years Maldonado has been involved in a string of incidents, and has received more penalties than any other driver, giving him a reputation as an accident waiting to happen. From the section. Before entering Formula One, he won the 2010 GP2 Series championship. Pastor Maldonado ended Williams' long wait for a Formula One victory by taking a … What’s more, the McLaren man had a grid penalty, meaning Maldonado was to start on pole. There were claims that F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone had bent the rules to grant Sir Frank a belated birthday present – a theory fuelled by a fire that broke out in the Williams garage afterwards that burned lots of equipment, including tyres, leading to accusations that the ‘evidence’ had been destroyed. Hij is een voormalig kampioen van de Italiaanse Formule Renault. Williams had seemingly found the perfect set up and, crucially, had figured out how to get the best out of the new Pirelli tyres that so many were struggling with. Pinterest. However, his teammate Bruno Senna was not that lucky. Home F1 Features One of F1’s biggest shocks: Maldonado’s 2012 win. Almost eight years later, Alex Wurz blew some life into the matter. I have a mission to take them back to the top of the grid. Conspiracy theories began to circulate about why Maldonado had been so competitive on a one-off basis, especially as his Williams team-mate Bruno Senna had qualified in P17 before crashing out of the race after being hit from behind by Michael Schumacher. End of dialog … Such disbelief stems from the fact that he didn’t win because of good luck for him or bad luck for others, there were no incidents that handed him victory, he won entirely on merit. Escape will cancel and close the window. An exciting day in Spain – Valencia and Barcelona rarely deliver great races, but today we were served up a real treat. Spanish Grand Prix 2012: Pastor Maldonado holds off Fernando Alonso to claim historic win for Williams . He also entered nine races (and made seven starts) in the Spanish-based World Series by Renault(WSR). Alex Wurz has shot down a conspiracy theory surrounding one of F1’s biggest shock results of the past decade – Pastor Maldonado’s Spanish Grand Prix victory in 2012. With Alonso starting behind him in the form of his life and on home turf, surely not. To the surprise of just about nobody, the Ferrari did indeed take the lead as the race got underway on a cloudy spring day, squeezing his way past down the inside at Turn 1. We were the first to do it right. With him clearly the quicker of the two on hard tyres, Williams made the call to bring him in before Alonso and go for the undercut. Well, that was that, right? Pastor Maldonado Crash Compilation - YouTube. Watch later. Formula 1. Such was the veil of mystery that covered the Williams win of 2012 at the Circuit de Catalunya. Oh well enjoy your birthday pal, and thank you again for that win in 2012. Examining Pastor Maldonado's F1 Legacy of Crashes, Penalties and 1 Magical Win. The car looks fantastic especially on race pace.”. Info. Pastor Maldonado wins the 2012 Spanish F1 GP for Williams Maldonado's and Hamilton’s spat continued in Belgium, when the William’s man deliberately drove into the Brit after qualifying, and earned himself a five-place grid penalty. After all, not only was he prone to mistakes, but he was driving for a Williams team that finished the previous year with just five points. “It was my first podium and my first victory. By. Pastor Maldonado did more than enough with his victory at the Spanish Grand Prix to be able to tell his critics to 'shut up', says Williams board member Toto Wolff The season has just been so exciting this year from the start, and it comes down to the pit crews, and tires as always in racing. Explanation Insert a F1 driver's name in the search box and search or select a driver from the list directly. Pastor Maldonado Vettel Wins Bahrain Grand Prix Gill Clark. “The car was very fast because as a team we were the first to understand that we had to heat the front tyre over the rim. Just over a month earlier in Malaysia, he had faced a challenge from another less experienced driver in the form of Sergio Perez and prevailed. “Definitely not,” said Wurz, who is now chairman of the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association, quoted by Motorsport-total.com when asked about the conspiracy. The rolling average of the graph is 10 days. Is this the real life? via Bleacher Report; Ranking F1's Biggest Gaffes in 2015 . Home driver Fernando Alonso finished in second place after a race long battle while Kimi Raikkonen finished a close third. Pastor Maldonado won the Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday and then, 90 minutes later, carried his 12-year-old cousin to safety from the fire that engulfed the Williams garage. Despite pressure from Sergio Perez, Maldonado was the man to beat, setting a new record with six feature race wins in as many rounds that were enough to … Google+. It’s Pastor Maldonado’s birthday, so we thought we’d take a look back at the madness of the 2012 Spanish GP that made him a race-winner. Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta is a Venezuelan professional racing driver, who competed in Formula One for the Williams (2011–2013) and Lotus (2014–2015) teams and as a Pirelli test driver until 2017. He’d never come close to doing so again and only finished in the top five once more before leaving the grid in 2015. But Wurz, who had driven in 69 F1 races and was working as a driver consultant to Williams at the time, has insisted there was nothing sinister and that the team had merely maximised how to extract the most out of Maldonado’s car technically. The Austrian added: “That is a big issue now, the copying issue par excellence in Formula 1 with Racing Point and Mercedes. Pastor Maldonado Ranking F1's Biggest Gaffes in 2015 Oliver Harden. Great Scott! Pastor Maldonado was always a headline maker. And everyone had understeer. 4 February 2016. Maldonado only started seven of the races, and his best finish was seventh place. While he was flying on his fresh set, Alonso was getting caught in traffic, leading to the Spaniard rejoining six seconds behind after pitting. Beginning of dialog window. Pastor Maldonado Birth March 9, 1985 in Maracay, Venezuela Grant Ruetemann - May 13, 2012. Ultimately though, he won’t care. Even so, few expected him to do so well in the top-10 shootout, assuming the top drivers had yet to show their hand. The car was clearly unspectacular, and he blotted the copybook big-time with a Hamilton Spa clash that many saw as unacceptable on-track retaliation, yet by and large 2011 was Maldonado’s most accomplished year – or at least his least wasteful. Home News ‘No conspiracy’ in shock Maldonado victory. “It’s a wonderful day for the team which has been pushing so hard,” he said. Nr Season Grandprix : 1 2012: 1x - Spain : Poles for Pastor Maldonado. It worked a charm. A day Pastor Maldonado and Williams Racing will never, ever forget! Tussen 2011 en 2013 reed hij bij Williams F1, waar hij in het seizoen 2011 teamgenoot werd van Rubens Barrichello, in 2012 teamgenoot was van Bruno Senna en in 2013 teamgenoot was van Valtteri Bottas. May 13, 2012 - Pastor Maldonado has secured the first Venezuelan F1 victory ever and the first Williams win since Juan Pablo Montoya in 2004. In 2005, Maldonado made four starts in the Italian F3000 Championship. He became the first Venezuelan to win a Formula One Grand Prix when he won the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix for Williams, from his first and only pole position. In the years that have followed, various conspiracy theories have been put together such as one claiming that Bernie Ecclestone had bent the rules to grant Sir Frank Williams a belated birthday present and the fire destroyed all evidence of such wrongdoing. Is this just fantasy? Williams's Pastor Maldonado takes landmark Spanish Grand Prix win. One of F1’s biggest shocks: Maldonado’s 2012 win. “There is a great atmosphere in the factory and team. Today the race winner Pastor Maldonado celebrates his 36th birthday. It was Ed Wood, who was then the chief designer, and me. Nr Season Grandprix : 1 2012: 1x - Spain : Pastor Maldonado is born in Maracay, Venezuela. In 66 seasons of the Formula One World Championship, just 95 different drivers have won a … Pastor Maldonado, became, in Barcelona, Spain the first Venezuelan to stand as a winner or for that matter on the podium in a formula one race and thus history was made, at the Spanish Grand Prix. The following graph shows the change in the DriverDB Rating of Pastor Maldonado over time since January 1st 2013. Follow us on Twitter @Planet_F1, like our Facebook page and join us on Instagram! Pastor Maldonado (Maracay, 9 maart 1985) is een autocoureur uit Venezuela die tussen 2011 en 2015 in de Formule 1 uitkwam. Wishing him all the best! On his day, in the right car, he could be seriously quick, as he showed in qualifying. Get the latest race results, news, videos, pictures, win record and more for Pastor Maldonado on ESPN.com. “I was still with the team and those were the times when Toto Wolff was with Williams. His second started in the same fashion as, hunting down Fernando Alonso for P5 in the closing stages of the season opener, he crashed out on the final lap. We were the first to find out.”. Mald… It was also his only podium finish and his only win in Formula One. You can imagine what I feel.”. The Venezuelan is a genuinely fast Formula 1 driver, and on his day can look world class. He then retired from two of the next three races due to an engine failure and a puncture. However, that wasn’t the case, and in the final session, only Lewis Hamilton went quicker than him. Does Pastor Maldonado deserve his bad boy reputation? Pastor Maldonado whizzed past the checkered line at the Spanish Grand Prix of 2012 with an FW34. For all of his flaws, one thing that Maldonado never lacked was outright pace.

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