Bahrain GP: Pastor Maldonado "lost power" in F1 qualifying

Both Lotus drivers had been quick in practice at Sakhir, but Maldonado was left 16th on the grid after his problem struck in the first part of qualifying.

"We lost a lot of power but it's coming somewhere else and not an engine issue," he said.

"I think it was coming from somewhere in the brakes, but we need to wait for the team because they are still working so we don't know exactly where it was to be honest.

"We lost a lot of power and top speed in all the straights, that's why we were that bad, very slow.

"We lost a second in the first sector, another second in the last two sectors.

"We were harvesting too much and not delivering - doing all the lap with full battery.

"All seems to be working in the engine side so we'll see."

Despite starting from row eight, Maldonado still expects to score points in the race.

He is convinced Lotus has comparable pace to Williams, which secured the third-row spots with Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa.

"We lost a qualifying but tomorrow we can recover," he said.

"We have all the tyres available, we have a very good pace, maybe the best pace of the season - it's very consistent and very solid.

"I think this weekend we've been very close to Williams.

"It was maybe possible to beat one of them in quali, and maybe there's a chance to compete against them in the race as the race pace is always much better for us.

"We are not far away from the points, only six places. Not the end of the world.

"We will do a different strategy. It will be a full attack race. We have all the tools to be very strong."