Maldonado in talks with Sauber?

Pastor Maldonado has told GPUpdate.net that he is not involved in talks with the Sauber Formula 1 team following a paddock rumor at Thursday's GP2 test which states that the Venezuelan could be in-line to take the seat of Pedro de la Rosa as the European season begins. Having set the quickest Wednesday lap time at the start of this week's 3-day GP2 test session at the Circuit de Catalunya, Maldonado retained his strong pace by finishing third and a tenth off the top spot on Thursday morning.

"Not bad," the Rapax driver, pleased with the improved Spanish weather, said in the team garage. "We are working and trying different things on the car. The important thing here is to collect the data and give it to the workshop to be able to develop more because we don't have a lot of tires for testing, so it's always difficult to do anything here but I think the balance is okay and I'm happy with the car."

With the gossip being that Maldonado, 25, could take Spaniard de la Rosa's place from Monaco onwards, with the earlier Spanish Grand Prix also remaining a possibility, Pastor explained his attempts to enter F1 for 2010.