The Black Stuff

UPDATE: Multiple sources are confirming that Pastor Maldonado has been handed a 10 place grid penalty for the race.

All weekend we’ve been going on about how we expect Pastor Maldonado to have a very good Monaco Grand Prix. He’s a noted beast around the circuit, has a race winning car under him and is coming off his maiden F1 victory. Sounds like it’s all going to plan for him, right?

Well, it was. Then free practice three happened, and in the space of two mad minutes he threw it all away. Now it looks like he’s not only facing having to do the rest of the race weekend in a hastily rebuilt car, but can also be expecting a hefty grid penalty.

As we all know, in the past Maldonado has been something of a hot head. Remember Spa last year when, at the end of Q2, he essentially side swiped Lewis Hamilton after he thought the Englishman cost him some time? Well, he’s gone and done it again, this time to Sergio Perez.

Heading down into Portier, the Williams man was on super softs and seemingly having a push to see what his car could do. In the process Maldonado had had to follow a crawling Perez through the few slow corners beforehand and, for reasons best known unto himself, decided to react by sharply turning in on Perez. There is no defense; he was not turning in to the corner and it was not an accident. Nigel Mansell is the driver steward this weekend, and the man is the epitome of hard but fair.

Expect a 5 place grid penalty minimum for him. Honestly, he deserves 10 at least. This time he did it at one of the slowest parts of the slowest track on the calendar. What if next time somebody annoys him heading into 130R or Eau Rouge next time? This is behaviour that needs to be stamped out.

The more urgent concern for Pastor, though, will be the fact that on the next lap he clipped the inside of Massenet before ploughing into Casino, ripping the rear right quarter off his car, damaging the nose and generally knocking seven shades of poop out of his car. At best the damage will be cosmetic and fixed by just bolting new parts on, while at worst there could be a repeat of Alonso’s 2010 weekend, where he missed qualifying after sliding into the wall in FP3.

The most interesting scenario here will be if Maldonado does have damage to his car that’ll keep him out of quali, and he then has to ask the stewards for permission to race…

Last weekend we saw the very best of Pastor Maldonado. It’s always been said about him that he can be a hot head, but during his win in Barcelona there was none of that. He was cool, calm, trusted that cars closing rapidly on him would eventually drop back again, didn’t break rhythm, overtook cleanly and was an all round superstar. For those two crazy minutes today we saw the very worst of him; smashing into other drivers, getting wound up and sticking the car into the wall.

A win at Monaco would have solidified him as one of F1′s hot new stars, establishing him in that second tier of driver that is below the elites of Messers Alonso, Vettel, Hamilton et al. All he’s done today is show the world how far he really has to go.