• European Grand Prix - Qualifying

Maldonado praises Williams work

Pastor Maldonado ended qualifying 0.389s slower than Sebastian Vettel © Press Association

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• Report:
• Imperious Vettel takes Valencia pole
  

• Race:
• European Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Pastor Maldonado

• Teams:
• Williams

Pastor Maldonado praised Williams for its hard work after admitting he had not had a smooth weekend prior to qualifying third on the grid in Valencia.

Maldonado will start the European Grand Prix from the second row after being beaten by Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton late in qualifying. However, he revealed after the session that the car had not been working so well on the soft tyres as it had on the medium compound, but praised Williams for the recovery and believes he can have a strong race on Sunday.

"We've been working so hard," Maldonado said. "Actually the car has been quite quick from yesterday. We were struggling a bit with the option tyres; we were a bit confused because the car did not feel the same as on the prime tyres. But then we've been working so hard trying to understand what happened, this morning we were still struggling - especially with the option tyres. For qualifying we understood it a little bit and here we are. I think we did a pretty good job, Williams is getting better and better every time so I'm pretty happy for the team, pretty happy for my country and it's going to be a great opportunity again to get on the podium and fight for a good result."

Having used seven sets of tyres in qualifying, Maldonado said that he was unconcerned because the mediums were still better for his race strategy.

"I think for the long runs for us the prime tyres were a bit better. We had more range and they were even quicker after a couple of laps so we have enough tyres to race and to be very competitive, so I'm not worried about that. I'm looking forward to tomorrow and we'll see from the start to the end what happens. The strategy will be very important, essential for tomorrow as these conditions are very hot and very difficult for everybody."

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