At the Singapore Grand Prix Maldonado ran off track, and when he rejoined he and Button collided. The diffuser of Maldonado's car was damaged in the incident. Immediately after the incident, world champion Button took to the radio to say about Maldonado "I should have known, he's mental". Soon after the incident, Lotus confirmed that Maldonado would drive for the team in 2016. In Japan, Maldonado started from outside the top 10, but got up to seventh immediately after the start. However, he was overtaken by Hülkenberg during the first stop, dropping him to eighth, where he remained until the end of the race. In Russia, he started in 14th position. He had made up six positions during the race to finish in eighth place, which became seventh as Räikkönen was penalised for causing an accident on the last lap. In the US Grand Prix, Maldonado started 13th, but had to take avoiding action in the first corner, which dropped him to 18th. Despite this, he managed to get back in the battle for the points, because of the high attrition in the race and two safety car periods, when he caught up the cars in front of him. In the end, he finished 8th. At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Maldonado ran into the side of Ericsson. Maldonado's Lotus team described the incident as an "oops", but the stewards considered the incident to be serious so imposed a 5-second penalty on Maldonado. Despite the penalty, he managed to finish in the points. At the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix Maldonado and Alonso collided, damaging Maldonado's car and forcing him to retire. Maldonado ended the season with 27 points and 14th place in the Drivers' World Championship. Commentators looked back at his career fondly while commenting on the inconsistency that had earned him the nickname "Crashtor".