Williams driver Pastor Maldonado has defended his blue flag infringements during the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in which he was penalised twice.
The Venezuelan driver blocked several faster cars as they attempted to lap him, some losing considerable amounts of time, which resulted in a drive-through for ‘ignoring blue flags’.
He was later handed a 30-second time penalty for the same offence later in the race.
Despite admitting he knew about the approaching cars on the lead lap, he chose not to move across immediately as it would have cost him several seconds.
“I saw the guys for sure, but I cannot lose four seconds every time,” said Maldonado.
“I think in the past it’s always been the same for everybody, even when I get the Virgin cars or the Hispania cars, I’m always losing time. This is part of the job, especially when you’re fighting for the points. In that moment, I was fighting with Alguersuari, so it was a difficult decision.
“I’m really disappointed because it’s the first time this year that they’ve done that. For me, it’s completely wrong.”
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