The Monaco Grand Prix stewards, including former champion Nigel Mansell, considered excluding Pastor Maldonado for his FP3 incident.
The Venezuelan cut across Sergio Perez’s Sauber damaging the front-wing in what looked to be a premeditated move out of anger for being held up earlier in the session.
He was given a ten place grid penalty.
Whilst Maldonado blamed the accident on cold tyres and track conditions, video replays clearly show him in control of the car and taking an unusual line which wouldn’t have been considered the ‘racing line’.
“I did nearly nothing, it was just a little touch, because of the condition of the track… it is a very narrow track, I lost the car, maybe I could have backed off a little bit but I was trying to not get traffic on my best lap,” he explained.
However, according to Mansell, the 27-year-old is lucky to be starting the race on Sunday.
Williams shareholder Toto Wolff reportedly confronted Mansell after qualifying, furious with the ‘harsh’ penalty dished out for the incident, to which Mansell replied: “Be happy that he’s even racing.
“We were close to excluding him for the whole event.”
Maldonado starts at the back of the grid after taking a second penalty for changing his gearbox.
