Maldonado’s Spa retirement due to his own error

Romain Grosjean was superb during his race and the man behind Lotus’ first podium finish since 2013 US Grand Prix. Though his team-mate Pastor Maldonado suffered a loss of power on the second lap itself, which according to everyone analysis was a mechanical error with the car.

As it turns out, Maldonado’s retirement was “self-inflicted”, according to his Lotus Formula 1 team.

If his massive shunt in the free practice wasn’t enough to draw further criticism to his driving, he went off the track at Eau Rouge, damaging his clutch control system and forcing the car into retirement for the 7th time in 11 races.

He was running into points, and clearly it would have been a massively great result for the Enzo team with a double point finish, considering their off the track fortunes.

“It was one of those weekends where everything came together,” said Lotus trackside operations director Alan Permane.

“It’s a very good car, it does seem to work well in low downforce levels, which is why hopefully Monza will be kind to us.

“If we could develop it like we would develop any other car, we’d have a good chance of being higher up than we are now.”

While Maldonado had a rough time, his team-mate Romain Grosjean was outstanding during the race and led Lotus to first podium of the season.