Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

'Lots of potential' at Lotus - Maldonado

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Pastor Maldonado says there's "lots of potential" for Lotus to have a strong season after scoring his first points of the year.

While Lotus has been much more competitive this year than last, Maldonado has struggled to turn the improved pace of the E23 in to a top ten finish. He finally broke that run in Canada with seventh place at a track which suited the Lotus and Maldonado believes it can mark the start of a much more successful rest of the season.

"Of course it’s good and there’s a lot of potential yet to come," Maldonado said. "There are twelve races left in the season so still a lot of opportunity to do well.

"It’s been frustrating waiting for a points finishing race to come, but now it’s happened it’s like the monkey is off my back and we can push forward for a good season. Certainly, it was a positive weekend for the team in Canada and there’s still lots of potential in the season ahead."

And Maldonado says he has been motivated by the "fantastic reaction" he received from Lotus when he got back to the garage after the race in Montreal.

"There was a fantastic reaction from everyone in the team and it was great to be part of the team at that moment when I walked back to the garage seeing how everyone was happy for me. Everyone has worked so hard this year and last year too, so it’s really great when you finish a race in the points. This is what we want to do at every Grand Prix and what we want in Austria next."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.