Magnussen fire halts FP1 in Malaysia

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FP1 at the Malaysian Grand Prix was halted as a result of a fire for Kevin Magnussen's Renault in the pit lane.

Magnussen was returning to the pits after his installation laps when he was told to jump out of his car quickly in front of the garage, with flames starting to emerge from the airbox above his head. The car caught fire but Renault mechanics were quickly on the scene to try and bring it under control.

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The cause of the problem appeared to be a fuel leak, with liquid flowing out of the top of the car and down the sides of the engine cover, again catching light a number of times as Renault attempted to put the fire out. With extinguisher all over the pit lane, the session was red flagged after 11 minutes of running, with Renault then taking its time to work on the car.

During that time, Renault connected its fuel lines to try and drain the car, and was able to remove the engine cover to address the problem before finally wheeling the car back into the garage.

After a further 15-minute delay, the session was restarted.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.