De la Rosa qualified ahead of Karthikeyan once again in China, and finished 21st, one lap down from the race winner. In Bahrain, he finished 20th after qualifying 22nd, although after the race he admitted that the team still needed "to gain some speed per lap" to fight their rivals on a consistent basis. Following on from this, De la Rosa finished his home race for the first time since 1999 in 19th place, the last of all classified drivers. However, he was unable to complete the Monaco Grand Prix due to a collision with Pastor Maldonado at the beginning of the race.