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My mistakes are normal - Maldonado

Pastor Maldonado has had a number of crashes and penalties this year © Press Association

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Pastor Maldonado believes the mistakes he has made since the start of the season have been normal for a young driver coming through the ranks in Formula One.

Maldonado impressed when he won the Spanish Grand Prix earlier this year but a series of mistakes and penalties have prevented him from scoring a single championship point since. But Maldonado does not see the mistakes as abnormal, although he insists he has been learning from them to improve his consistency.

"They're normal mistakes," he told GP Week. "If you look at other drivers, they've done the same in the past.

"I think for sure we've not been consistent. At the beginning I made a couple of mistakes, like in Australia when I was sixth I think and crashed on the last lap. Before this season, though, after the horrible year last year, we didn't expect to win.

"We've been not always at the top but near the top especially since Barcelona. I just need to be focused for the second part of the season and keep our target for the car. We just need to recover, put everything together, and we haven't the last few races. We need to learn from the mistakes."

Asked if he'd built up a reputation as a bit of a crasher, Maldonado said: "Before I won the race [in Spain] nobody was here [interviewing me], now everyone is here. This is racing, you know. I made a couple of mistakes, that's it. I will try to do my best as always. Sometimes it hasn't worked out as I expected, but the important thing is we're very quick and we must stay like that."

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