Maldonado: Williams F1 returned to 2011 level

Qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix took place limited to Q1 today but Pastor Maldonado already knows his place on the starting grid. The pilot Williams will start from 17th place ahead of Esteban Gutiérrez after missing the passage to Q2 for three tenths behind Adrian Sutil, last qualified for the second session which will be contested tomorrow morning. Despite the difficult conditions in which the first session was contested, the Venezuelan was unable to progress in the timesheet.

The winner of the last Spanish Grand Prix is ​​very worried about the lack of performance of the FW35. “I think we are back to where we were two years ago”, declared Pastor Maldonado at the end of Q1. “We have to work very hard to resolve these problems. The car is currently undriveable. We are slow whether in the dry or the wet. Our speed for tomorrow should be better for us but our pace in qualifying was very bad. »

If Pastor Maldonado suffers a first failure against his new teammate Valtteri Bottas, his fears seem justified. The Finn achieved the penultimate time of Q1 allowing him to qualify for the next session, with only two thousandths ahead of Adrian Sutil.