At the , Petrov qualified eighth but retired after crashing into the back of Michael Schumacher on lap 16, causing a safety car. It became the third contact between the pair in 2011, when Petrov appeared to be too involved in trying to outbrake Alonso on the long straight before Turn 3. He incurred a five-place grid penalty for the incident at the inaugural , which meant that he had to start the race from sixteenth place. He finished the race eleventh, just in front of teammate Bruno Senna, and just missing out on the points-scoring positions. After finishing 13th in Abu Dhabi, Petrov launched an attack on his team in an interview on Russian television, citing lack of development, strategy mistakes, and criticisms of the drivers by team management. Petrov apologised for the outburst with an email to all Renault staff, with Éric Bouiller claiming the matter was closed. Petrov ended the season with a tenth-place finish in Brazil, but with Adrian Sutil finishing sixth in the race, Sutil moved ahead of Petrov for ninth place in the final championship standings.