Watch the 8 most surprising crashes in F1 history

#5 Pastor Maldonado, China 2014

Pastor Maldonado stunned everyone at the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012 when he put his inferior Williams on second place in qualifying. There was even more astonishment as on race day, he executed his pit-stop strategy to perfection to beat home-hero Alonso and score his only F1 win to date.

That was arguably the highest point of his error-strewn career. Maldonado returned to his ways immediately after, evaporating any hopes of him becoming a title-contending driver. His inadvertent crashes into other drivers earned him the moniker of the ‘Crashtor’, which he termed unlucky later on.

However, this incident did not occur with Maldonado knocking out any other driver. He spun, hit the barrier and damaged only his own car, the Lotus this time. In the previous race in Bahrain, Maldonado had turned into Esteban Gutierrez’s Sauber, which caused it to somersault before coming to a halt. It was a heart-in-the-mouth moment for the Mexican youngster.

The stewards handed Maldonado a penalty for the next race in China, so he already started on the back foot. But he was to further compound his problems. In the second Free Practice session, Maldonado completed a lap around the circuit and was coming into the pits. He locked up before the turn in and went onto the gravel, sliding across to hit the ball and break his front suspension and dislodge the tyre.

He had earlier spun his Lotus while searching for a button on the steering wheel and looked mighty short of confidence. He failed to qualify but was allowed to race and finished in 14th place, somewhat salvaging an embarrassing weekend.

VIDEO Maldonado Chinese Grand Prix 2014