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Pastor Maldonado says he never lost faith in himself or his Williams team after finally returning to the points in the Japanese Grand Prix.

The Venezuelan famously scored his maiden Formula 1 victory in the Spanish Grand Prix in May, but then went eight races without scoring a single point.

On Sunday, Maldonado ended his point-less run with an eighth-place finish.

"Since Barcelona we had a couple of mistakes, but not all was from my side. We had some problems with the car and lost quite a lot of points," said Maldonado after the Suzuka race.

"But the combination of many things was the cause of that, but we have always been optimistic and competitive.

"I never lost the confidence in myself and in the team. The potential is so good, and we showed our consistency in qualifying. The car is there. Maybe it's not the best car but we have good pace, especially in the race.

"I've had bad times during the season, but now everything is back to normal, which is good for the team and for myself."

The Williams driver is still not ruling out winning another race this season, especially after fighting for a podium place in the last race in Singapore.

"Everything is possible. Why not? We were so close to being on the podium in the last race. Maybe the victory was not there, but the podium was possible," he added.

"But we had a problem. It could happen. We must stay together as a team when you have this kind of problems. We can't lose the confidence in ourselves. I feel really confident."

Maldonado reckons there is no reason why Williams cannot be strong in the Korean Grand Prix next week, although he is hoping he can make it into Q3 after failing to do so in Japan.

"I hope to be better, especially in qualifying," he said. "The most important for us is to jump into Q3 and then in there I'm very strong as usual. And if we continue to have the pace we had here we will be very competitive."