'˜Tiny error' costs King a podium berth at Monaco in the GP2 series

The 22-year-old Harbury racer qualified on the second row for Friday’s 40-lap pitstop race in his Racing Engineering Dallara-Renault.

After biding his time in third for more than 20 laps, King moved up to second when Russian youngster Sergey Sirotkin crashed out on the exit of the Swimming Pool just after half distance.

Running behind Norman Nato and looking good for another podium finish, King made “a tiny error - probably measuring half an inch” that brought his race to a premature end with suspension damage just 13 laps from home.

“I was in chill mode,” he said. “I was looking after the tyres and waiting for the pitstops when I touched the barrier on the uphill right-hander exiting Casino Square. It was just enough to break the wishbone. I was gutted, to say the least, especially when Norman had a delayed pitstop that would’ve put us in the pound seats.”

Saturday’s 30-lap sprint was always going to be hard starting from 19th on the grid.

“It was a case of ‘let’s see how far we can get’,” admits King. “Overtaking is extremely tricky round here at the best of times and the stewards are hot on any misdemeanours.

“I managed to get up to 16th - and that’s as far as it was possible to go.”