Pastor Rafael Maldonado Motta (Spanish pronunciation: [pasˈtoɾ maldoˈnaðo]; born 9 March 1985) is a Venezuelan former racing driver, who competed in Formula One from 2011 to 2015.

Maldonado's performances in FR3.5 were enough to attract the interest of GP2 teams, and he signed a contract to drive for Trident Racing in 2007 after a successful test in late 2006.

He started at the back of the grid for the Hungary feature race, but he moved up to finish fifth after staying out for longer than any other driver, and setting a succession of quick laps on these worn tyres.

[28] Towards the end of the 2010 season, Maldonado was linked to the Williams team for 2011, replacing former GP2 team-mate Nico Hülkenberg alongside Rubens Barrichello.

He took part in the end-of-season young driver test at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi, driving for Williams and Hispania Racing, the rebranded Campos team.

[29][30] In addition to his on-track record, Maldonado also brought sponsorship from the Venezuelan government (through the state-owned PDVSA oil company) to the team.

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Maldonado qualified second, next to Lewis Hamilton on the front row of the grid after strong pace from his Williams car during the race weekend.

Maldonado was later promoted to his first pole position in his Formula One career after Hamilton was excluded from the results of qualifying, due to having insufficient fuel in his car.

[35] At Monaco, he received a ten-place grid penalty for causing an avoidable collision with Sergio Pérez during a practice session (which subsequently may have led to Pérez's crash in qualifying, which caused the session to be red-flagged) and an additional five-place penalty for a gearbox change, meaning he started 24th and last on the grid.

[37] Maldonado finished the qualifying session 17th and started the race from 22nd position after a five-place grid penalty after he was forced to change his gearbox due to damage suffered in the crash.

[38] Maldonado made good progress in the first stint, running as high as tenth mid-race, however after his pitstop he dropped back to seventeenth and finished the race in thirteenth place.

Maldonado then passed several drivers including Red Bull's Mark Webber and was running fourth in the closing stages of the race.

Maldonado was able to continue and finished tenth with a broken front wing; Hamilton retired after he crashed into the tyre wall.

[40] Maldonado qualified seventh in the British Grand Prix and ran as high as sixth before a pit-stop on lap 11 which dropped him into the midfield.

In television interviews, Pérez was damning of Maldonado's driving, calling him too dangerous and claiming he ruined other people's races.

[44] He then jumped the start of the race, and was deemed to cause a collision with Marussia's Timo Glock, resulting in two separate 5-place grid penalties, so was demoted by 10 places in Monza.

[49] Maldonado finished the season with a ninth place from ninth on the grid in the USA and a DNF after a second lap crash from sixteenth from the grid after a ten place penalty for a third reprimand after missing a weighbridge check in Brazil, as he finished fifteenth in the Championship on 45 points, the lowest Championship standing for a driver who won a race during an F1 season.

[54] At the following round in Malaysia, Maldonado did make the second qualifying session but was caught out by the rain meaning he failed to set a time and started the race 16th.

[62] During the race the following day, Maldonado was deemed to have caused a collision when trying to pass Marcus Ericsson, and was given a five-second stop-go penalty.

In Hungary Maldonado lost control of his Lotus while heading to the grid, and in the race he crashed in to Jules Bianchi when attempting an overtake.

[64] At the Singapore Grand Prix, Maldonado crashed during the second free practice session, causing a red flag.

[67] At the Australian Grand Prix, Maldonado was hit by Felipe Nasr and crashed out of the race at the second corner of the first lap after he overtook 3 cars at the start and was in 6th position.

[70] At the Chinese Grand Prix, Maldonado suffered a brake issue that caused him to go off-track when entering the pits, and had to be recovered by the marshals.

It was reported that the incident justified Lotus's decision to save their sole example of a new front-wing design they had brought to this race for his team-mate Romain Grosjean.

[80] On the second lap of the race Maldonado was in 7th but ran off track and hit a curb, sending a 17G shock through the car, which broke a clutch control valve, forcing him to retire.

He had made up six positions during the race to finish in eighth place, which became seventh as Räikkönen was penalised for causing an accident on the last lap.

[98][99] With the announcement of the retirement of Nico Rosberg following the conclusion of the 2016 championship, Maldonado negotiated with Sauber Motorsport for a return to Formula One, with no agreement being reached.

[101] On 21 March 2018, DragonSpeed confirmed that Pastor Maldonado would contest the entire "superseason" of the World Endurance Championship, in the LMP2 category with an Oreca 07,[102] together with Roberto González, as well as Nathanaël Berthon in the first two rounds, and Anthony Davidson in the rest.

Pastor also competed in the 2019 24 Hours of Daytona in the LMP2 category, also with DragonSpeed and alongside Roberto González, Sebastián Saavedra and Ryan Cullen.

[112] 2005  N. Rosberg 2006  L. Hamilton 2007  T. Glock 2008  G. Pantano 2009  N. Hülkenberg 2010  P. Maldonado 2011  R. Grosjean 2012  D. Valsecchi 2013  F. Leimer 2014  J. Palmer 2015  S. Vandoorne 2016  P. Gasly 2017  C. Leclerc 2018  G. Russell 2019  N. de Vries 2020  M. Schumacher 2021  O. Piastri 2022  F. Drugovich 2023  T. Pourchaire 2024  G. Bortoleto