Maldonado handed double punishment for Gutierrez shunt

[rawsy]

Pastor Maldonado handed double punishment Esteban Gutierrez shunt | Bahrain Grand Prix | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN.co.uk

Pastor Maldonado has been handed a double punishment for his collision with Esteban Gutierrez on lap 41 in Bahrain.

Maldonado had just left the pits when he dived down the inside of the Sauber, launching Gutierrez into a terrifying spin which ultimately brought out the safety car. Maldonado served a ten-second stop/go penalty during the race, and has now been slapped with a five-place grid penalty for the Chinese Grand Prix and had three penalty points added to his licence.

Jules Bianchi has also had two penalty points added to his licence for his contact with Adrian Sutil which left them both with punctures in the early stages. This means Bianchi has now collected four penalty points from the opening three races.

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Read more at Pastor Maldonado handed double punishment Esteban Gutierrez shunt | Bahrain Grand Prix | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN F1

ridiculous. how is it ricciardo gets a stop go and a 10 place penalty for something beyond his control, while mr bumper car himself maldo only gets a 5 place penalty for nearly killing someone. dont get me wrong i like anything that stops redbull but dont think the stewards are being even handed at all.

 

[thebigman]

It's a joke, should have been much harder on him.

 

[rawsy]

Esteban Gutierrez left me 'nowhere to go' - Pastor Maldonado | Bahrain Grand Prix | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN.co.uk

Pastor Maldonado has insisted that he believes Esteban Gutierrez missed his braking point after the two collided during the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Maldonado was exiting the pits on cold tyres at the start of Lap 41, with Gutierrez coming down the pit straight alongside him, when he took an inside line and pitched the Sauber into a frightening barrel-roll. During the race Maldonado received a ten-second stop/go penalty, and received further punishment after the race, three penalty points on his licence and a five-place grid penalty for China.

But Maldonado is unclear as to what really happened in the indent and suggested the Sauber driver could have made a mistake on entry to the corner.

"We will need to have a look again at what happened as Esteban seemed to be off his line coming into turn one - maybe he missed his braking point, I don't know - and by then I was in the corner with nowhere to go," Maldonado said. "For sure it's difficult to understand and I was coming out from the pits and with cold tyres. I think he was very unlucky and it's good he jumped straight out of the car."

The incident overshadowed the fact that both Lotus cars made it to the finish for the first time this season, and Maldonado is expecting further improvements in China.

"As a team it's a plus that we finished with two cars which is very important and now we need to learn from this race and push hard for Shanghai. As we expected the pace was much better in the race than it was in qualifying. We were using quite an interesting strategy and were running on two stops which was working well until the incident.


Read more at Esteban Gutierrez left me 'nowhere to go' - Pastor Maldonado | Bahrain Grand Prix | Formula 1 news, live F1 | ESPN F1

as usual he says it wasnt his fault. the guy is a menace. im unsure why his backers still pay for him. surely the damage he causes costs a fair bit. they would have to write in the contract x amount sponsorship plus damage costs. lotus will be looking at confused.com soon i think.

i like the" he left me no where to go" comment. they are called brakes maldo ffs.