 However his fortunes improved at Sepang where he took his first (and best finish) of the season with a 14th in spite of having to do the second half of the race in fuel conservation mode due to pick-up and fuel capacity problems.Di Grassi struggled at the Chinese Grand Prix which had him start from the pit lane.He circulated behind HRT driver Karun Chandhok until he retired with clutch failure after completing nine laps.