APRIL 10, 2012

Third time lucky for Maldonado?

Pastor Maldonado is targeting his first points of the season in this weekend's Chinese GP after misfortune in Australia and Malaysia.

Pastor Maldonado is targeting his first points of the season in this weekend's Chinese GP after misfortune in Australia and Malaysia.

The Venezuelan had sixth place in the bag in Melbourne before he shunted behind Fernando Alonso's Ferrari on the final lap.

With the Williams FW34 showing impressive pace, he was also in a points-scoring position at Sepang when he suffered an engine failure with the chequered flag almost in sight.

Williams has changed from Cosworth to Renault power for 2012 and Maldonado's Malaysian engine failure has been traced to a piston failure -- relatively rare these days with F1's power units restricted to 'only' 18,000rpm.

"Shanghai is one of my favourite circuits, with a good combination of corners," Maldonado said. "I will be looking to score my first points of 2012."