Almost 50.000 enthusiastic spectators turned up at Los Proceres / Caracas to see the roadshow of Pastor Maldonado in his Williams F1 and local hero Rodolfo „Speedy“ Gonzalez in his Zele-Racing GP2, who grew up 2km from the historic Los Proceres monument in the Venezuela capital Caracas.
Surrounded by numerous TV crews and being interviewd all day long, all Venezuelan drivers turned up for the PDVSA organised event. Pastor Maldonado, Ernesto Viso, Johnny Cecotto, Giancarlo Serenelli, Milka Duno and of course Rodolfo Gonzalez were taken on a parade-lap on the 4km circuit to greet the cheering crowd.
Pastor Maldonado took the wheel first but bad luck struck on lap two, when he lost control of his Williams F1 car on the extremely dusty and bumpy track, only to slide the back end into a walkway curb, which severely damaged the rear suspension of his car and brought the show to an end. Both Frank Williams and Toto Woff were shocked by the fact that Pastor´s run ended in such a dramatic way.
It was then Rodolfo, who saved the show, completing a 20 minute run around the Los Proceres parc and through the historic monument in the Zele-Racing GP2 car. He completed a total of 8 laps, reaching topspeeds over 230 kph and crwoned his show with numerous doughnuts in front of the presidential grandstand, where Venezuela´s vice-president and the president of PDVSA followed the show.
