After four seasons of trying, Venezuela's Pastor Maldonado finally picked up the GP2 title at Monza on Sunday. The Rapax driver now looks forward to the final pair of 2010 races in Abu Dhabi as well as forwarding plans for a Formula 1 drive in 2011.
Pastor Maldonado, GP2 Champion!:
I'm very happy now! We worked very hard to finally win the championship and for sure it's special to win here at Monza because the team is from Italy and it feels like my home.
I'm very happy with the hard work we've done this season; it was so competitive, it's great to win six races so far and I hope we are competitive still in Abu Dhabi.
We now need to focus and to keep pushing for the team championship: we are very close with Addax and ART, but I'm confident we can do it.
We know you well, you've always shown your speed before, but couldn't quite do it - what has been the difference this year?
For sure the difference this year is the team; they are a completely strong team, we work well together, it's a compact team and that's made the difference, especially at the beginning in the winter test. When I saw them working like that, I was so confident for the victory.
You've worked with the previous version of the team (Piquet GP) - what is the difference this time?
The team is quite new, half of them, so new mechanics and engineers in the team and better organisation.
It's more concentrated and they put a lot of confidence in me, they were quick with pit-stops, their strategies - everything was just running well and that's made the difference.
The new engineers are from GT racing, they maybe see things different to the GP2 engineers, and that's made a difference too - they are finding new ways and are consistent because of the long races.
How will being the GP2 Champion make a difference in your life?
For sure it will make it better for Formula 1. It's going to be interesting for the next month because we are pushing very hard, even my country, and it helps a lot to make a good chance for Formula 1.
I think I can do very well there and we are concentrating on getting a good team to do my best and the title is important; to go there with the title, it says a lot.
Do you have anything lined up for F1 at the moment?
Not at the moment, but we have been working in that way for the last two or three months and were concentrating on the championship here.
We haven't got anything yet but we have talked to a lot of teams and have a lot of interest.
Now I will look more at getting the best seat I can find for me for the future.
Pastor Maldonado was talking to GPUpdate.net's Gregory Haines
Twitter: @GregoryHainesF1
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