Christian Bakkerud's mood of optimism after taking a top ten finish in the GP2 Series feature race in Monaco was dashed in an all-too-typical first corner accident in Saturday's sprint event.

Having finished tenth in his race back after injury, the Dane was confident of challenging for a first points finish of the season around the tough streets of the Principality but, whilst lifting off the throttle to avoid Andi Zuber's car, which was squeezing him towards the guardrail, he lost downforce and couldn't avoid contact.

The impact with Zuber's left rear wheel sent Bakkerud's Super Nova machine into the air, vaulting over Zuber - breaking the Austrian's rear wing - and only ending its flight as he reached the Ste Devote tyre wall. Despite climbing several feet in the air before crashing to earth with terminal damage to the front end, fortunately Bakkerud emerged unscathed - and apparently with no effect on his tender spinal area.

“It wasn't exactly what I had planned for today," the Dane admitted, "However, this is very typical of the Monaco street circuit as we are 26 cars storming down to the very tight first corner with no room for mistakes.

"Zuber, who was behind me on the grid, got a fantastic start, but had to move across [the track] to avoid other cars colliding in front of him. In turn, I had to lift off to avoid him, but ended up losing grip. That meant that I just couldn't stop in time to avoid the car ahead of me, so mine went up in the air. I don't blame anyone for what happened, it was simply a racing incident."

“I had a fabulous start, immediately overtook two cars and subsequently moved up to seventh place," Zuber confirmed, "Then Bakkerud hit my rear tyre. His car went sky-high and damaged my rear spoiler."

Bakkerud was particularly relieved not to have suffered any further injury to his back, after a similarly hard landing in the opening race of the season in Barcelona forced him to miss the next three rounds.

"Fortunately, I landed one wheel at a time, so to speak, and didn't hit the ground with all four wheels at the same time, which has a huge impact on your body and back," he explained, "In my case, that would have been disastrous, but I can't feel any pain or any other problems from my back, so I think I got away lightly this time.“

The accident was a particular disappointment after Dane's improved showing in Friday's feature race, where he ran as high as third before making his mandatory pit-stop.