It's fair to say that Pastor Maldonado Lotus career hasn't got off to the best of starts five races in to the 2014 season.
Chinese Grand Prix
Practice One
What happened? As nightmare weekends go, Pastor Maldonado will probably hope the 2014 Chinese GP represents his F1 nadir. The first of two embarrassing Friday incidents occurred in P1 when, on an out-lap at the start of the session, Maldonado, looking down at his E22's steering wheel at the time, suddenly lost control of his car and slewed across the run-off area after incorrectly turning right instead of left.
Worse, however, was still to come...
Pastor said: "I was on the steering wheel. [There is] too much to do in the out laps, after out laps it's okay."
Practice Two
What happened? He's not the first driver to come a cropper in the twisty Shanghai pit entry road - step forward Lewis Hamilton - but Maldonado managed to go one better than the 2008 World Champion when he crashed into the wall after carrying too much speed.
The impact wrecked his car's nose and front-right suspension and sidelined the former Williams driver for the remainder of P2. He didn't have a chance to atone for his gaffes on Saturday after more unreliability with his E22 kept him out of qualifying.
Pastor said: "The incident this afternoon was a mistake from my side; I was a little optimistic on the entry to the pits, and the run off is quite short, but that's how it is. It's a tricky part of the track and we've seen incidents there before."
Spanish Grand Prix
Qualifying
What happened? Maldonado maintained his record of being involved in incidents at every grand prix held so far this season with another knock-out blow in qualifying at Barcelona. At the start of Q1, the 29-year-old, who had shown promising pace throughout practice in the improved E22, ran wide rounding the long Turn Three and spun into the outside wall, crumpling the right-front of the car.
It meant that, for the third time in five races, Maldonado failed to set a qualifying time, although the stewards once more gave him dispensation to race after showing sufficient speed in practice.
Pastor said: "The cars are a bit more difficult to control but it's not bad. I'm quite happy, to be honest, because I do like to fight the car. I'm quite happy, a bit disappointed about what happened today, but there is a clear improvement on the car."
Race
What happened? Eyeing a fast start from his now customary starting position at the back of the grid, it took just 11 corners of the race for Maldonado to run into more trouble with the stewards after clouting Marcus Ericsson's left-front wheel in an optimistic overtaking move at Turn 11.
A five-second stop/go penalty and a fourth penalty point of 2014 compounded another ultimately frustrating weekend.
Pastor said: "Today's result is a bit disappointing but my race had been already compromised by starting at the back the grid. At least we saw the chequered flag."
