Spanish GP: Great feeling for Maldonado

Qualifying for the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix would see Williams F1 driver Pastor Maldonado finish in an excellent second place. At one stage Pastor was looking at securing pole but was beaten in the dying moments by Hamilton. Despite not securing pole Pastor went into qualifying with the knowledge that the FW34 had the pace to perform well in qualifying.

After qualifying Pastor was asked by his pace and was the team and he thought was possible over the weekend.

Pastor said: "We thought the top ten was possible, and this morning I was quite surprised by our performance, because our car was so quick lower fuel.

"So this morning we thought it was possible."

As for Sunday's race Pastor is still confident that he can perform well.

Pastor added: "I think we have been working so hard since the beginning of the year, trying to understand these tyres and develop our cars around the tyres.

"And we actually made a good step forward for this race. The car looks consistent, especially in race pace, so it's a great feeling to be here, first time in top three.

"We improved our worst thing, which was qualifying pace. So I am happy for the team, for my country and for myself."