Having not watched the Bahrain GP, I missed
out upon Pastor Maldonado's collision with Esteban Gutierrez,
which sent the Sauber driver barrel rolling down the racetrack - hence
incurring the Race Stewards wrath and
landing the Venezuelan driver a five-place grid spot penalty for the following race in Shanghai.
Yet Maldonado's weekend outing seemed to be
Shanghaied from the start, as the Venezuelan driver inexplicably drove straight
off track during Friday practice when the camera's reportedly showed his head
down staring at the steering wheel whilst going straight off! NO word on
whether or not the Venezuelan was texting the Renault Pits for French Fries as
soon as he "Boxed."
Then adding insult to injury was his E22
saying "PU!" Err le 'Reggie's V-6 Power Unit going POOF! As there'd
be only 21-drivers participating in Saturday's Qualie' Q1 session, as Pastor's
Lotus-Renault remained upon the high-stand jacks having its PU worked upon -
making Maldonado's penalty pointless.
And whilst Lotus team leader Romain Grosjean brought
some smiles to the beleaguered squad by qualifying the recalcitrant E22 in the
Top-10 for the first time this season, the Frenchman unfortunately was forced
to retire with Gearbox failure during the race, while Maldonado, who started dead
last in P22 managed to finish the race in 14th - as the next race
will be the Spanish Grand Prix, where Pastor won his lone race to date two
years ago upon Sir Frank Williams 70th birthday weekend...