Williams' form took a turn for the worse in Korea and Maldonado finished in 14th place after qualifying 15th. He once again managed to get into Q3 in India, but a mistake on his final attempt left him 9th on the grid. His race was disappointing as he got his tyre punctured by Kobayashi after having passed the Sauber driver. He eventually finished 16th. Maldonado returned to the sharp end of the grid in Abu Dhabi where he qualified fourth, which became third as Vettel was excluded from qualifying due to having insufficient fuel in his car. He kept third place at the start and was running at the same pace as cars around him until his KERS unit failed after the first safety car period of the race. Without KERS his car lost pace and he fell back to eventually finish fifth. Maldonado finished the season with a ninth place from ninth on the grid in the USA and a DNF after a second lap crash from sixteenth from the grid after a ten place penalty for a third reprimand after missing a weighbridge check in Brazil, as he finished fifteenth in the Championship on 45 points, the lowest Championship standing for a driver who won a race during an F1 season. Maldonado also received 14 penalties throughout the season, five ahead of Sergio Pérez and Michael Schumacher, Maldonado's grid penalties for both driving offences and gearbox changes totaled to 38 grid places, 1.8 per race.