Pastor Maldonado has admitted to overstepping the mark after exploding and delivering a heat-of-the moment damning indictment on his time with the Grove-based Williams outfit.

With his days at the team drawing to a close after informing them he no longer wished to stay two months ago, the Venezuelan then hit the self-destruct button on Saturday in the United States.

The 28-year-old remarkably suggested someone within the team had tampered with his car given he finished 1.5seconds behind teammate Valtteri Bottas, who topped the timesheet at the end of first qualifying while he failed to make it into second qualifying.

Maldonado then went one step further when he said in leaving Williams he would be ending “the worst three years of my career”.

When reminded of his Spanish Grand Prix win last season, Maldonado added: “Yeah, only one.

“I had a really bad first year, a really bad third year; last year was OK. I was expecting something more, but I cannot do miracles.”

But following the race itself, Maldonado recognised his comments were inappropriate.

“Sometimes you get too stressed, you value only the moment, and after three years you explode,” he said.

“I think I accumulate energy and I explode. It is not that I am crazy and I start to say many things like that, but for sure it was wrong, both from my side and that of the team.”

MANSOOR Ijaz, who is behind the consortium seeking to invest in the Enstone-based Lotus team, is adamant the long-awaited deal will be concluded this week.

Lotus have been in talks with Ijaz since May, but six months on are still awaiting delivery of the money for a 35 per cent stake in the team.

The consortium comprises members of Far Eastern royal families and Middle Eastern families, with the primary investor being a major oil and gas conglomerate in Abu Dhabi.