Pastor Maldonado

A gallery of Pastor Maldonado photos

Mark

Pastor Maldonado was a driver for the Williams Formula One team. He raced in Formula Renault in Italy back in 2003, and in 2004 won the Formula Renault 2000 Eurocup, which earned him a test for the Minardi Formula One team, in November of that year. He moved to Italian F3000 in 2005, as well as the World Series by Renault. However, his year in WSR was marred by an incident where he failed to slow at the scene of an accident whilst racing in Monaco, and struck and injured a marshal, earning him a four race ban.

In 2006, Pastor moved on to Formula Renualt 3.5, where he finished third. However, he would have won the title, had he not been disqualified from a race at Misano due to a technical infringement.

2007 saw Pastor sign for the Trident team in GP2, and 2008 saw him move to the Piquet Sports team, and in 2009 he moved to ART, still in GP2. Finally, in 2010, driving for Rapax, Pastor won the championship. He was considered for a drive with the new Campos Meta Formula One team in 2010 – which became the HRT team – however, this was not to be. Williams announced at the end of the 2010 team that Pastor would replace Nico Hulkenberg, for 2011, bringing not just racing talent, but sponsorship from the Venezuelan national oil company, PDVSA.

2011 saw Pastor clash with Lewis Hamilton at both the Monaco and Belgian Grands Prix, and was penalised in Abu Dhabi for ignoring blue flags. He finished 19th in the World Drivers’ Championship.

Williams retained his services for 2012, and made Formula One history at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix by becoming the first Venezuelan driver to win a race. However, Pastor suffered from a number of incidents and accidents through the remainder of the season, and ended up finishing 15th in the championship, the lowest place achieved by a driver who won a race during a season.

In 2013, Pastor is still driving for Williams, partnered with Finnish rookie Valtteri Bottas.  The season was not without incident, and in an interview near the end of the year, he appeared to imply that the team were favouring Bottas over him.   Williams announced that Felipe Massa would replace Pastor in 2014, and in late November 2013, Lotus announced that Pastor would drive for then in 2014, partnering Romain Grosjean. However, after a few series where Lotus were doing well and managing some race wins, 2014 proved to be a much more fallow year, with getting out of the first qualifying session or finishing a race being an achievement. A ninth place at the US Grand Prix in Austin gave Pastor two points, his only score of the season. He remained at Lotus with Romain Grosjean for 2015.

There is a list of my various galleries of Formula One drivers here.

Here are some photos from various events over the years. I hope you like them.

 

Pastor Maldonado at the 2015 Belgium Grand Prix

 

Pastor Maldonado at the 2015 British Grand Prix

 

Pastor Maldonado during Winter Testing 2015

 

Pastor Maldonado at the 2014 German Grand Prix

 

Pastor Maldonado at the 2014 British Grand Prix

 

Pastor Maldonado’s Car At The Donington Collection

 

Pastor Maldonado in the 2013 Young Driver Tests

 

Pastor Maldonado in the 2013 British Grand Prix

 

Pastor Maldonado in the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix

 

Winter Testing 2013

 

2012 British Grand Prix


 

2012 European Grand Prix

 

2011 British Grand Prix

 

2009 British Grand Prix