In the race, he lost positions to Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg at the start. Hülkenberg and Petrov's wheels made contact and both drivers went off the circuit on the same lap; Hülkenberg managed to move ahead of Petrov. On lap 44, Hülkenberg, in ninth, made a mistake which allowed Massa to momentarily take advantage, but he fought back and retained ninth position. Massa then overtook both Hulkenberg and Massa, and on the last lap, Hulkenberg was fighting Sutil for 9th, but was held off, and finished 10th. Barrichello had a solid run to sixth at the finish. At the new Korean Grand Prix , Barrichello qualified 10th and Hulkenberg 11th. In a wet race Barrichello suffered heavy tyre wear on the intermediates that he was running on. Kubica took eighth place from Hülkenberg by taking the inside line at the third corner. Hülkenberg then spun off the track on lap fifty-two and made a pit stop for new tyres because his engineer on the pit-wall told him one of his tyres had developed a slow puncture. In the closing stages of the race Barrichello was passed by Robert Kubica and Vitantonio Liuzzi, dropping him to seventh place at the finish, while Hulkenberg passed Alguersuari on the final lap to finish in tenth. At Interlagos, with a track drying and no rain falling, the first part of qualifying eliminated the new teams and Adrian Sutil. In Q3, the top ten qualifiers saw a track drying so much that after a round of laps in intermediate tyres and times up to 1:16's, the teams opted for slick tyres. This tyre gamble proved successful for Nico Hülkenberg, who took advantage of the situation and qualified over a second ahead of the next quickest cars, taking his first pole position. This also gave the Williams team their first pole since Nick Heidfeld qualified on pole at the 2005 European Grand Prix, and the first pole for Cosworth since the 1999 French Grand Prix. Hülkenberg gained his first Formula One pole position, by 1.049 seconds over Sebastian Vettel. Barrichello qualified a strong sixth. Hulkenberg lost the lead on the first lap, and he eventually finished the race in eighth place, having been passed by drivers in more competitive cars.