He is the F1 driver who once accused Lewis Hamilton of being ‘completely lost’ after winning just a single race

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Lewis Hamilton has clashed with his fair share of Formula 1 drivers, as anyone would across a stellar 18-year career.

The Brit has won all seven of his drivers’ championships under Mercedes power, with the first and only one of those with McLaren in 2008.

He would remain with the Woking-based outfit for the next four years, going through various struggles and clashing with multiple Formula 1 rivals.

Hamilton made a weird McLaren accusation when he felt that the team had taken teammate Jenson Button’s side at the 2010 Turkish Grand Prix, despite winning the event.

The year prior, after a poor start to the 2009 season, Hamilton nearly ‘exploded like a volcano’ when he was handed a car well off the pace of the top. It was one of his toughest campaigns.

His sixth and final season with McLaren came in 2012 when arguably he should have been a title contender without some horrid reliability. He had the fastest car that year.

READ MORE: Why Lewis Hamilton was left ‘peeved’ when Jenson Button arrived at McLaren as his F1 teammate

Pastor Maldonado once called Lewis Hamilton ‘completely lost’ at the 2012 European Grand Prix

Pastor Maldonado, born 9 March 1985, spent five seasons in Formula 1 between 2011 and 2015 with Williams-Renault and Lotus-Renault.

In that time, he claimed one victory at the 2012 Spanish Grand Prix and failed to ever finish at three separate events (Australia, Monaco and Malaysia) across five seasons.

On his day, he was absolutely rapid and one example of a result which got away from him came at the 2012 European Grand Prix while fighting for third place with McLaren’s Hamilton on the final lap.

As the Venezuelan attempted an ambitious move, the two collided, spearing the seven-time champion into the barriers and ending his race. It resulted in the Williams driver calling him out post-race.

“He tried to put me out of the track and he didn’t leave any room for me to stay and to do the corner side by side. I jumped over the kerb and I couldn’t avoid the accident,” he told Reuters.

“I don’t know why he drove like that, he was struggling too much with the tyres, he was completely lost and at that moment I was making very good pace.”

At the time, Maldonado was experiencing what would go on to be his best season in the sport. His career was slightly hindered by crashes, and he easily missed out on many more points in 2012 due to various collisions.

Surprisingly, his Valencia incident came just weeks after he had secured his first win in Barcelona. He was just a few miles from a dream couple of events in Spain.

READ MORE: Lewis Hamilton knows he did something that wasn’t ‘right’ when he left McLaren for Mercedes

What happened to Pastor Maldonado after his Lewis Hamilton spat?

Maldonado would go on to finish 15th in the drivers’ standings during 2012 – a result not very representative if what he could have achieved.

Arguably, he lost a sixth-place at the season-opener in Australia with a last-lap crash, a podium in Valencia on the last lap, a top five with a first-lap crash in Belgium following a jump start and many more incidents.

Those three results alone should have added 25 points to his total – enough to land him 10th overall. A far more justified reflection of his speed.

The top 10 from Maldonado’s only F1 win is fascinating. Just three drivers (Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg and Hamilton) still race today.

The Venezuelan’s career would not last beyond 2015 at the highest level, as he would lose his seat with Lotus. He would dabble in endurance racing but hasn’t been behind a cockpit for at least five years now.