Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsLotus F1

Maldonado crashes out on first lap

Pastor Maldonado crashed out of the Australian Grand Prix as Lotus endured a nightmare opening lap at Albert Park.

With Kimi Raikkonen running slightly wide at Turn 1, Felipe Nasr attempted to pass the Ferrari but had Maldonado on his outside and as Raikkonen moved back on to the track Nasr tapped the left rear of Maldonado's Lotus.

Maldonado attempted to catch the car but finally lost control as he ran out of road on the outside of Turn 2, spinning on the grass and hitting the wall. The incident brought out the safety car, with Lewis Hamilton leading team-mate Nico Rosberg.

The second Lotus of Romain Grosjean immediately came in to the pits after the safety car was deployed, and he too retired from the race having made a very slow start on the Mercedes-powered E23.

The race had already started with just 15 cars on the grid after Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat suffered car failures, while Valtteri Bottas had to withdraw due to a back injury.

Click here for Saturday's gallery from the Australian Grand Prix

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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.