1. Manuel Maldonado Vargas was born on 5 October 1999 and is a Venezuelan racing driver currently racing in the European Le Mans Series for United Autosports.
13 Facts About Manuel Maldonado
1. 2.
Manuel Maldonado is the cousin of former Formula One driver Pastor Maldonado.
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Manuel Maldonado drove alongside Leonard Hoogenboom for the Cram Motorsport team, a lackluster first year in Italian F4 saw Maldonado fail to score any points and record his best result of 12th only 7 races into a 23 race season.
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Manuel Maldonado returned for the following campaign finishing in the points 7 times with his best finish of 5th coming on two occasions.
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Manuel Maldonado joined the Fortec Motorsport team for the 2017 BRDC British F3 Championship, he enjoyed an uneventful season with his best result coming at Silverstone Circuit where he finished 6th.
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The 2018 season was where Manuel Maldonado took his first career victory at a wet Oulton Park, still with Fortec, Manuel Maldonado started in 5th place however after the first corner he was leading the race.
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Manuel Maldonado shared the podium with teammate Tristan Charpentier and Douglas Motorsport driver Jamie Chadwick.
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Manuel Maldonado won one more race that season taking him to 7th in the standings, behind Billy Monger.
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Manuel Maldonado took 5 podiums that year as well as a singular win at Silverstone, a dominating race which saw him finish 4 seconds ahead of 2nd place Nicolas Varrone.
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Manuel Maldonado showed strong pace throughout the year having 2 front row starts, one coming in at Red Bull Ring, Austria and the second one at the season finale in Barcelona at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya.
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Manuel Maldonado Joined the UK based team United Autosports for the 2021 Asian Le Mans Series, to make his endurance racing debut in car 23 an LMP3 Ligier with teammates Wayne Boy and Rory Penttinen, to make an extremely successful campaign by taking the championship.
12.
Manuel Maldonado made his European Le Mans Series debut in 2021 with the United Autosports team, he paired with Nico Jamin and Job van Uitert, they had a best result of 3rd place in the 4 Hours of Le Castellet and concluded the year in 12th place overall.
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Manuel Maldonado later went on to race in the GT world championship for a year before making a return to the series, this time around with the well known Panis Racing, which turned to be a successful campaign, alongside Job van Uitert and Tijmen van der Helm as teammates, they went on to score 4 podiums across the season and finished 3rd overall in the final standings.