Following the mid-season break during first practice at Spa, Maldonado crashed the car into the barriers. It was reported that the incident justified Lotus's decision to save their sole example of a new front-wing design they had brought to this race for his team-mate Romain Grosjean. On the second lap of the race Maldonado was in 7th but ran off track and hit a curb, sending a 17G shock through the car, which broke a clutch control valve, forcing him to retire. Despite the incident Maldonado was ambivalent saying "I don't care" about the damage he had caused to his car. At the next race, Monza, Maldonado tried to avoid the chaos in the first chicane but hit Hülkenberg damaging the suspension, forcing Maldonado to retire. Following this incident Mark Webber said that he does not think that Maldonado is talented enough to justify his drive in F1.