First DNF for Bianchi as Monaco bites

It proved a long day for Marussia F1's Jules Bianchi, who failed to finish a Grand Prix for the first time in 2013 at Monaco on Sunday.

In fact it was a minor miracle that he'd even turned a wheel in the race, after he was left sitting on the grid as the other cars streamed away on the formation lap.

"On the grid at the start I had an electrical problem and couldn't select gear, so I had to start from the pit lane," he confirmed. "It was a bit worrying but at least I could start."

It was a relief when there was no recurrence of that initial problem, but that didn't mean there weren't headaches on the way for the young Frenchman. "After a tough weekend here in Monaco I was hopeful that we might have the opportunity to turn things around in the race, but it was not to be, unfortunately," he admitted.

"For that early part of the race I was right with Max but I had to think about looking after the tyres and hope that the race would come to me," he explained, only to end up running into someone else's accident when a collision between Williams' Pastor Maldonado and Bianchi's own team mate Max Chilton caused an massive barrier deformation that blocked the track on lap 44 and left the Marussia driver nowhere to go to avoid the incident.

"After Maldonado hit the barrier in the accident with Max, the barrier came back out at me and my nose was damaged," said Bianchi. "I had just pitted when the red flag came out; I was lucky that the damage was only limited to the nose and I could continue with the race."

Bianchi could be thinking that after surviving that one, things must be looking up. Unfortunately for the 23-year-old from just down the road in Nice, that wasn't to be the case.

"I was just looking to bring the car home, but I had a failure of the right front brake disc and that took me out at Ste Devote," he said. "It's a big shame but we have learned a lot I'm sure from some of the problems we had this weekend."

"Today's race was incredibly eventful for the whole field and our Team was no exception," said team principal John Booth. "We are sorry for the problem which Jules experienced on the grid but things started to look up for us from there.

"It seems that Jules [subsequently] suffered a failure of the right front brake disc and for that again we must apologise to him," Booth added. "There is a lot to learn from and improve on after this weekend but in the main we are still happy with the result."