Pastor Maldonado says he will do his utmost to outrace Lotus team-mate Romain Grosjean during Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix, as the Venezuelan looks to score “good points” in Montreal.
The ex-Williams racer set the sixth fastest time in Q3 yesterday and will line up one spot behind the Frenchman on the grid.
“Let’s do our best,” replied Maldonado when asked whether he would try to beat Grosjean off the line. “We’re both being quite quick.
“In the race, you need to save fuel, you need to manage the tyre degradation. I’m quite good in tyre degradation, I’ve showed that in the past. My race pace is normally better than [Romain’s].
“I will do my best, even at the start to try to gain one or two places if we can in the first lap, and then to do a good race. I think we have the pace to compete for something else than P6.”
While Grosjean has already finished in the points-paying positions three times this year, Maldonado has yet to break into the top ten in 2015.
The 2012 Spanish Grand Prix winner has been involved in several on-track incidents, some through no fault of his own, and hopes he can enjoy a trouble-free Sunday at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
“For many reasons, we’ve not been able to finish the races and I hope here we can do our best job, the best we can.
“For sure, all the team is pushing hard and we do our best, same as in the past. Hopefully we can have a clean race and good points should be a good reward for us.”
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