Pastor Maldonado has suggested that Williams aren’t giving him the same equipment as team-mate Valtteri Bottas, which explains why his pace was well down on the Finn’s.
Bottas was quickest in Q1, setting a 1:37.821, but Maldonado could only manage a 1:39.351 to finish 18th, a gap of over 1.5 seconds.
When asked after the session where his pace was, he suggested his engineers were sabotaging his car to give Bottas an advantage.
“I never got 100 per cent from the tyres, I think in my car somebody is playing with the pressure/temperature, it’s not that clear.
“It’s difficult to say, I think you need to ask the team, the guys who are working on the car. I think it’s quite clear.
“One more race to go so…great,” he added.
The Venezuelan has expressed a desire to leave the Williams team at the end of the season and he will do with Felipe Massa taking his season.
Speaking after, deputy team principal Claire Williams denied any allegations of sabotage and believes the comments were purely made in anger.
“Qualifying is a big adrenaline rush for the drivers,” she said. “People say things after these situations. We’ll go back and talk to the engineers to see what’s happened.
“Never in Williams, in our experience, our history, have we ever done anything like that.”
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