Pastor Maldonado says he thinks
Williams can fight towards the front in the final two races of the 2012 season after an encouraging performance last weekend in Abu Dhabi.
The Venezuelan was on the pace throughout the weekend at Yas Marina but missed out on the chance to fight for the podium places after running into an issue with his KERS.
Abu Dhabi did however see Maldonado return to form after a wretched run of results that followed his victory in Spain earlier in the year and he said he felt the team had shown its potential.
"Red Bull is quite strong and even
McLaren at the moment, but anything can happen," he told
ESPN. "Our objective is to put the car in the top ten and as close to the podium as we can. Our car is very consistent and quick during the races and the further we start up the grid the better it is for us.
"We are working so hard and we show everyone that we are back again to be very strong with two cars in the points [in Abu Dhabi] - it's very positive. I'm disappointed because we had a problem again - in Singapore we also had a problem [while fighting for a podium] - but it happened as well to McLaren. But we have to stay focused and try to understand why we had this problem.
“We started with a better pace and all weekend we were very consistent, with very good pace and always in the top ten. I did a great job in qualifying and we did a good job in the race until I had the problem."