1 cars, meant that Karthikeyan twice set the record for the lowest placed finisher in a Formula 1 event. The first occurrence was during the Chinese Grand Prix where the single retirement of Jaime Alguersuari meant Karthikeyan finished in 23rd place, after he was overtaken by teammate Vitantonio Liuzzi on the final lap. However, in the European Grand Prix there were no retirements meaning that Karthikeyan once again broke the record by being the 24th car to cross the finish line. On 30 June 2011, Karthikeyan was replaced by Daniel Ricciardo for the remaining races of the season except the Indian Grand Prix but participated in Friday first practice in Germany, Singapore, Japan and Korea. On 23 October 2011, it was confirmed that Karthikeyan would replace Liuzzi for the Indian Grand Prix. Karthikeyan was outqualifed by 0.022 secs to qualify 22nd, however he started 24th and last due to blocking Michael Schumacher in qualifying. Despite picking up damage in the first lap of the race, Karthikeyan managed to beat Ricciardo by 31.8 seconds in the race to finish 17th. Liuzzi returned to replace Karthikeyan ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. 2012 On 3 February 2012, it was confirmed that Karthikeyan had again signed for the HRT team for the 2012 season partnering Pedro de la Rosa. In the Australian Grand Prix, he and teammate Pedro de la Rosa were unable to qualify. In Malaysia, both the HRTs managed to qualify, with Karthikeyan starting 23rd due to a 5-place gear box penalty for Heikki Kovalainen, the start was wet and the HRTs gambled to start the race on full wet tyres, whilst the other cars started on intermediate tyres. As the rain increased that gamble paid off as other cars had to pit for full wets which promoted Karthikeyan to a points-paying tenth place before the safety car then red flag came out for heavy rain. At the restart, after a few more laps behind the safety car, the track was dry enough for intermediate tyres and a few drivers pitted as the safety car came back in, however Karthikeyan stayed out and was as high as 5th place at one point, before McLaren's Jenson Button crashed into him whilst they were racing for position. Karthikeyan suffered damage however, but he pitted for intermediate tyres which dropped him to the back of the field, bar teammate de la Rosa who