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Karun Chandhok may have run over a steering wheel and have his Monaco Grand Prix end with a car on top of him, but he labelled his afternoon as one of the best races of his life.

The HRT driver was locked in a tight fight with the other new teams throughout the Monte Carlo event - but couldn't avoid trouble as he ran over Rubens Barrichello's errant steering wheel at one point before Jarno Trulli launched himself over the top of him after an over-optimistic move at Rascasse.

Despite the crazy afternoon, Chandhok was delighted with the speed he showed and the way most of his afternoon went.

"I think that was one of my best races," Chandhok told AUTOSPORT. "Bruno pitted early on and the team left me out, so I had to make 18 seconds on him - and I did six seconds in the first eight laps. I touched the wall five times - and they were like qualifying laps!

"After the pitstop, I was catching Bruno, but there was no point trying to pass him. Then Jarno tried something silly really. I don't think he would even have enough steering lock to get around the corner from the angle he was coming at - and he would have done the old 2006 parking move! He has apologised.

"He is not an idiot, I quite like him and he is a nice guy. I think when he apologises he know he has screwed up."

Although television footage appeared to show Trulli's car hitting Chandhok's helmet, the Indian claimed he avoided any car contact by ducking his head.

"Fortunately I was a bit lucky as I ducked and he went over my head," he said. "It didn't actually touch me and it looked worse than it actually was.

"But it was very frustrating because that was probably my best race of the year in terms of pace. We were racing the other two new teams and I was quicker than Bruno in the race, so it was a bad way to end."

Chandhok also revealed that he dragged Barrichello's errant steering wheel all the way down to the tunnel section of the track.

"It got lodged underneath the car, so I could feel it scraping all the way through Mirabeau. Then the noise stopped and one of the marshals reported back that it fell out of my car in the tunnel. But then Bruno ran over it - so that steering wheel has been well and truly Hispania'd!"