set the sixth fastest time in qualifying, although Williams technical director Sam Michael reckoned the car was fast enough to be a couple of positions higher. In the race despite losing places to Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg at the start, Barrichello had a solid run to sixth at the finish. In Japan, he qualified in a strong seventh, he raced strongly before fading to ninth as he was overtaken by the two Saubers towards the closing stages of the race. In Korea he qualified tenth despite being blocked by Michael Schumacher. In a wet race he suffered heavy tyre wear on the intermediates that he was running on, and in the closing stages of the race he was passed by Robert Kubica and Vitantonio Liuzzi, dropping him to seventh place at the finish. At Interlagos he qualified a strong sixth in variable conditions with teammate Hülkenberg starting from pole position. After a delayed pitstop, his traditional bad luck on home soil returned when he suffered a puncture after briefly colliding with Jaime Alguersuari, costing him any chance of scoring points. In Abu Dhabi he again qualified strongly in seventh place, and maintained that position shortly after the start. However, when the safety car was deployed following Michael Schumacher's and Vitantonio Liuzzi's crash, many drivers like Robert Kubica, Vitaly Petrov and Nico Rosberg took advantage of this by pitting early. This had a negative effect as they did not need to pit again, and Barrichello finished outside of the points. On 15 November 2010, Williams confirmed Barrichello as one of the team's drivers for the season. His teammate in 2011 was Pastor Maldonado. In Australia he retired with a transmission problem. He retired again in Malaysia with leaking hydraulics. He finished outside the points in the next three races before a pair of ninth places in Monaco and Canada. He came twelfth in Valencia, and thirteenth in Britain, but retired in Germany because of an oil leak. After that, he finished every race outside the points, but made no further retirements. His final race at the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix was a quiet farewell where he finished 14th, ahead of former teammate Michael Schumacher. In a 2022 interview, Barrichello revealed he was fired by Frank Williams through a phone call in early January 2012, and on 17 January 2012, Williams confirmed that Bruno Senna would replace Barrichello at Williams for