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Pastor Maldonado crashes during homecoming demo - A Williams demo in Venezuela comes to an abrupt halt

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Pastor Maldonado crashes during homecoming demo
Credit: Glenn Dunbar/LAT
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This is F1Minute - Pastor Maldonado crashes during homecoming demo.

Williams driver Pastor Maldonado was due to complete a 12 lap demo in his home country of Venezuela, as the team arranged to put on a show for 20,000 fans in the capital city of Caracas. Team boss Frank Williams and new Executive Director Toto Wolff flew in to see the demonstration, but found their afternoon of enjoyment cut short.

On the second lap of a short temporary circuit put up on a military parade ground, Maldonado crashed the car into a kerb, damaging the rear quite significantly.

It was left to fellow Venezuelan and driver Rodolfo González to entertain the crowds with a longer run in his GP2 car, which he managed to complete without meeting the kerbs.

Only a couple of days ago, Pastor Maldonado was talking up his chances for the rest of the F1 season, saying; “There are still 9 races to go... so we have time to recover. We need more points and we need to improve and learn from the mistakes. Every time I go on track, I try to learn and constantly improve. That is my approach.”