Maldonado gets ten place grid penalty
2 November, 2011
Pastor Maldonado
Nov.2 (Reuters) Pastor Maldonado’s hope of scoring points in next week’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix took a knock on Tuesday when Williams said the Venezuelan would have to collect a 10-place penalty on the starting grid.
The Formula One rookie retired from last Sunday’s inaugural Indian Grand Prix with a gearbox failure that damaged his engine.
Maldonado will now have to use his ninth engine of the season in the penultimate race of the year, exceeding his allocation of eight.
“He will therefore incur a subsequent 10-place grid penalty,” Williams chief operations engineer Mark Gillan said in a review of the New Delhi race.
Brazilian team mate Rubens Barrichello will use a new, eighth engine.
Williams have scored just five points in 17 races this year, the former world champions’ worst performance since the 1970s.
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- Hamilton gets five-place gearbox penalty
- Penalties, fines and grid place drops at Spa
- No gearbox grid penalty for Barrichello
The 10 grid spots will not be that big of an issue. Likely Pastor Maldonado will make up 5 spots on the 1st lap if he stays out of trouble. If the team puts Pastor out on prime tires; and he can take care of the tires he can jump up a few more places as teams come to pit to take off their options. It will make things interesting if he can catch a lucky yellow and have good fast pits stops during the race. Points are still possible =D