Pastor Maldonado issued grid penalty for blocking

Pastor Maldonado has once again incurred the wrath of the race stewards, this time for blocking Nico Hulkenberg during Saturday’s qualifying session, in which the Venezuelan driver initially ended up 3rd behind eventual pole-man Jenson Button and Kamui Kobayashi.

The Williams driver has been called up in front of the stewards on numerous occasions so far this season, and will instead line up 6th for tomorrow’s Belgian Grand Prix instead of the initial 3rd once qualifying had ended. The incident in question occurred during Q1, with the race stewards immediately announcing they would be investigating the incident after qualifying.

“The driver of Car 18 [Maldonado] was warned by his team not to "hold up" Car 12 [Hulkenberg] which was behind him, yet he clearly did impede Car 12.” Read a statement from the race stewards after qualifying. “However as Car 12 continued into Q2 a more severe penalty was not considered appropriate.”

This penalty has promoted Spa expert Kimi Raikkonen to 3rd on the grid, with many predicting the Finn for victory in tomorrow’s race. Pastor Maldonado will instead start tomorrow’s race alongside former sparring partner Lewis Hamilton, with fireworks very much a possibility on the run down to La Source.

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