Maldonado says consistency and points his priority after clashes in last two grands prix

Aside from his victory in the Spanish Grand Prix, the Williams driver has only an eighth place in China to his name and, despite regularly running in the top 10, has scored just 29 points, leaving him 10th in the championship.

Clashes with Lewis Hamilton at Valencia and Sergio Perez at Silverstone have cost him strong finishes in the last two races and Maldonado is now focused on converting his pace into regular results.

"Yes," he said when asked by AUTOSPORT if consistency is now his priority. "We have not been very consistent this year for many reasons.

"I made a couple of mistakes, especially in the first race [Australia] where I went out on the last lap when I was sixth. In the last couple of races, I made a couple of mistakes but there are still races to come.

"I made some mistakes in the past and need to improve and learn from those mistakes."

Maldonado believes that Williams can expect to continue to run near the front for the rest of the season, but emphasised the need to string together complete race weekends to make good on the pace he has shown.

But despite this, he does not plan to back off to achieve his target of consistency and is still happy to attack when the chance arises.

"We need to find some points to recover, but there are enough races to come," he explained. "We need to put everything together because we didn't do that in the last few races.

"Points are very important for the team and for me as well, so we will see [how much to attack in the races]. If I have the chance, I will go for it, but I will evaluate the situation."