Pastor Maldonado will be hoping to end a wretched season on a positive note at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on November 23.

The Lotus driver has glea-ned just one point for his efforts this season, having transferred from the Grove-based Williams team last November.

Teammate, Romain Gros-jean has brought in eight points for the Enstone-based team, thanks to two eighth places in Spain and Monaco.

On Sunday, Maldonado made a poor getaway at the start at the Brazilian Grand Prix, but fought back from 18th to 12th at the chequered flag.

Grosjean started well, running in the top-ten, but had to retire eight laps from the end because of engine problems.

“It was a tough race,” said Maldonado.

“We had to switch from a two-stop to a three-stop strategy due to high tyre wear and that compromised our race.

“My start wasn’t great, but we managed to be a lot more competitive towards the end of the race and were aiming for points.

“I tried my best and was hoping to overtake Valtteri Bottas, but it wasn’t possible.

“We’ll be pushing hard in Abu Dhabi, that’s for sure.”

Grosjean added: “The start of the race was good and we were able to run high up in the field quite quickly.

“We had to switch from a two-stop to a three-stop strategy half way through the race however and that came with some challenges.

“A lot of work was done to improve the car’s performance, so it’s hard not to be able to finish.

“We’ll be looking into what happened and make sure we’re ready to make the most of the double points on offer for the next race.”