Rivals angry at cause of Fisi crash.

Several drivers were moved to speak out over the early incident that saw David Coulthard and Giancarlo Fisichella collide and retire from the Monaco Grand Prix in spectacular fashion.

The incident occurred on lap three of the event, and was precipitated by an engine failure in Takuma Sato's BAR-Honda, which had been running in fourth place after a scintillating start. Apparently unbeknownst to the Japanese driver, smoke had begun emanating from the back of his car before the first lap had been completed, before the engine let go dramatically entering Tabac for the third time.

Those behind the BAR were instantly covered in a pall of thick white smoke and, while Kimi Raikkonen and both Ferrari drivers managed to get through unscathed, Coulthard was not so fortunate. In the confusion that followed the blow-up, the Scot slowed because he couldn't see what was ahead of him, and was collected by the chasing Fisichella, who was vaulted over the McLaren and into the barrier. The Italian's Sauber came to rest upside-down with its sidepod resting on top of the guardrail.

"I was very worried when Fisichella flew over me and landed upside down, and we were lucky not to have a more serious accident," was the Scot's view, "When Sato's engine blew up, I couldn't see anything in front of me because of the smoke. Perhaps Fisichella was going a bit too fast, I don't know, but smoke was coming from Sato's car on the parade lap, so I'm sure the engineers could have seen on the telemetry that it would blow up."

Rubens Barrichello agreed with the McLaren driver, claiming that Sato should have been called back to the pits.

"To be very honest with you, I thought that they should have put a flag out for him before [the accident], because there were already three laps when he was pushing out too much smoke from the engine or gearbox," the Brazilian said, "Something was happening there, it was obvious. I was lucky, and caught my car just as I was going into the guardrail."

The man at the heart of the aftermath, Fisichella, admitted that he was driving blind as the smoke from Sato's car engulfed the circuit.

"I had made a good start and was just driving gently, saving the tyres, when Sato's engine exploded," he reported, having made his way back to the paddock, "I'd seen it smoking after the second start, but nobody expected it to break like that.

"I had no vision at all. Barrichello and Montoya were in front of me, but then suddenly there was a McLaren. I'm not sure why it was there, but the next thing I heard was the bang and I was upside down. The car took all the impact and I stayed in the cockpit until it all went quiet outside. I'm okay, but very frustrated."