He may have admitted earlier in the weekend that the Monaco Grand Prix is no favourite of his, but that did not ease the disappointment for Pedro de la Rosa when the Spaniard was taken out of the race at the first corner. The HRT driver had been hit by the Williams of Pastor Maldonado, which was coming from the back of the grid.
Maldonado started 23rd after receiving two penalties; one for his boisterous move on Sergio Pérez in practice and another for a gearbox change. De la Rosa, on the other hand, had impressed on Saturday by out-qualifying the Marussia car of Charles Pic. Approaching Sainte Devote at the start of the race, the Barcelona man was rammed by Maldonado, which completely dislodged his rear wing and ended the afternoon.
“It was a terrible shame,” de la Rosa said bluntly. “I feel sorry for the team because yesterday we did a good job and today we were starting from an interesting position and I think we could have achieved a good result. Our one-stop strategy with Softs first and Super Softs second was good - you only have to see what Vettel did - so it was a shame not to have been able to complete more than 300 metres.
“It wasn’t a mistake by me or the team, but one by another driver, but those things happen in races - one day it might happen to me too. The sad thing is that it happened precisely here after all the good work we’d done and how much I was looking forward to finishing in Monaco with a good result.
“I leave here a little bit sad because, although we wouldn’t have scored a point, we could have at least finished with a good result.”
De la Rosa is unable to boast a good record in Monte Carlo, with his best result from six races having been tenth place for Jaguar in 2002.
Series
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Pastor Maldonado
Pedro de la Rosa
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HRT F1 Team
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| Pos. | Driver | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. |  M. Webber | Red Bull | 1:46:06.557 |
| 2. | N. Rosberg | Mercedes | +0.643 |
| 3. | F. Alonso | Ferrari | +0.947 |
| 4. | S. Vettel | Red Bull | +1.343 |
| 5. | L. Hamilton | McLaren | +4.101 |
| 6. | F. Massa | Ferrari | +6.195 |
| 7. | P. di Resta | Force India | +41.537 |
| 8. | N. Hulkenberg | Force India | +42.562 |
| 9. | K. Raikkonen | Lotus | +44.036 |
| 10. | B. Senna | Williams | +44.516 |
| Full results | |||
| Pedro de la Rosa | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| More Pedro de la Rosa photos | |||
| Pastor Maldonado | |||
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| More Pastor Maldonado photos | |||
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