MONACO - Kimi Raikkonen hit out at the track marshals here Thursday after a wiring problem forced his McLaren out of much of the first free practice session.
The 26-year-old Finn stopped on the track early in the first session and remonstrated with marshals as they attempted to extinguish a fire at the back of his car.
The McLaren driver said: "There was just a fire near my engine and when I stopped the fire, marshals didn't want to do anything. That is why the problem was much worse, as it burned some wiring and hydraulic equipment.
"It took much longer to fix everything than it should have."
Raikkonen was able to avoid a 10-place penalty on the grid as there was not enough damage to warrant a change of his Mercedes-Benz engine. And he was able to set the sixth fastest time in the afternoon's second free practice session.
His performance means he goes into Saturday's qualifying session confident of a good result - although he believes luck could play a greater part than usual due to the narrow streets making overtaking slow cars more difficult.
Raikkonen said: "This year it is more luck to get the free lap and you do need to be quick. But if you come across someone slower in front, there is not much you can do about it."
05/25/2006 17:15 GMT