Pastor Maldonado says he hopes there is more to follow after breaking his points duck with a seventhplaced finish in Sunday’s Canadian Grand Prix.

Teammate Romain Grosjean was tenth in the race which was won by Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, as the Enstone-based team moved up to fifth in the Constructors’ Championship.

Grosjean had been running in seventh before contact passing a backmarker meant an additional pit stop and time penalty.

“Finally, here we are in the points,” said Maldonado.

“I think now we’ve started scoring there’s potential for this to be a great season for us as we have really good pace.

“It was a good race. We had to pit quite early to gain the place against Nico Hulkenberg which made the later part of the race quite tricky and I couldn’t defend later on as a consequence.

“I’m pleased for the team that we got both cars in the points; let’s continue like this.”

Deputy team principal Federico Gastaldi added: “It was a happy day for us. Pastor scored his first points of the season after driving a strong and measured race and Romain was in the points too even if it was in a more eventful manner.

“For Pastor this should be a turning point for his season.”

Meanwhile, Sean Walkinshaw and MRS GT-Racing teammate Craig Dolby posted two more points finishes in the Blancpain Sprint Series at Zolder in Belgium to stay ninth in the chamionship standings.

Delivering a best result of sixth in the qualification race, following a dramatic side-by-side drag to the line with the BMW of Caca Bueno, Chipping Norton-based Walkinshaw and Dolby finished tenth in the main race.

“We definitely should have scored more points this weekend, the car was quick enough to be in the top five”, said Walkinshaw.

“It’s a bit disappointing not to come away from Zolder with more, but at least we did take some points away and we were competitive again.”

The series returns on July 4-5 for the Moscow street race.