This is F1Minute - Pastor Maldonado takes ten place engine penalty for Abu Dhabi.

Pastor Maldonado has become the first unlucky driver to receive the ten place grid drop for using a ninth engine in 2011. Drivers are allowed eight engines and can use them whenever they want, but once you get to the ninth, the penalty kicks in.

In their post-India press release, Chief Operations Engineer Mark Gillan admitted: “We need to ensure we have a trouble free weekend and then it is possible that we can make it into Q3, although as Pastor will use a ninth engine in Abu Dhabi, due to damage incurred following the gearbox failure in India, he will therefore incur a subsequent 10-place grid penalty. Rubens will use a new eighth engine.”

Williams also think they have made some progress after their poor form so far this season, although Rubens did finish behind a Lotus in India. Gillan added: “We made a decent step forward in performance, especially in our long run pace, from Korea to India which was helped with a well correlated floor upgrade.”