At the Maldonado was again involved in an incident – he was hit by team mate Romain Grosjean , who had just returned to the track after missing a braking point, causing rear wing damage to Maldonado's car. Despite the damage, Maldonado did not lose pace and was initially able to continue in seventh place; however, during his pitstop the team deemed the damage to be substantial enough to retire the car. At the , Maldonado was not able to profit from a season-best qualifying result of 8th due to a brake issue from the start of the race; Maldonado and Verstappen collided on the sixth lap, with Maldonado subsequently forced to retire from the race. After two 7th-place finishes in Canada and Austria, Romain Grosjean lost control of his car causing him to crash into his team mate Maldonado on the first lap at Silverstone, causing both Lotus cars to retire. At the , Sérgio Pérez tried to overtake Maldonado at the outside of the corner, Maldonado failed to leave enough room so the two collided, causing Pérez to spin. Maldonado was later penalised for his role in the incident. Maldonado was among numerous others that were penalised for speeding in the pit lane, and overtaking a Manor car under neutralised safety car conditions. Although the Manor (being lapped) let Maldonado deliberately pass him by the penalty wasn't withdrawn. At the midpoint of the season, the BBC journalist Andrew Benson rated Maldonado as the worst driver to that point, and stated that he "seems to be trying his utmost to find new ways to infuriate his employers and collect as many penalty points from the stewards as possible."