Pastor is passed

The award for most amusing F1 story of the year so far goes to everybody’s favourite Spanish GP winner, Pastor Maldonado, who last week said he was disappointed not to find a way back onto the F1 grid this year… with Mercedes. The Venezuelan, who w as dumped by Renault for 2016, said he was disappointed world champion Nico Rosberg’s retirement didn’t pave his way back into the sport. “I evaluated options but I was only interested in coming back to a competitive seat,” said Maldonado. “After Rosberg quit, that could have created a domino effect that would have guaranteed me a good chance, but things turned out differently.”