Maldonado will drop 5 places on the grid in Bahrain
After being forced to change the gearbox of his Williams FW34, Pastor Maldonado is given a 5-place grid penalty.
Like Kimi Räikkönen in Malaysia and Lewis Hamilton in China, Pastor Maldonado will drop 5 places on the starting grid of the Bahrain Grand Prix after being forced to change the gearbox on his FW34 when the Williams team engineers detected signs of failure that could have compromised the Venezuelan’s race.
Indeed, the sporting regulations require drivers to use the same gearbox for five consecutive Grand Prix, and Bahrain is only the fourth event.
Since the beginning of the season, the Williams driver has only reached Q3 once, in Melbourne, before failing in Q2 in Sepang and Shanghai.
