Story highlights
Kevin Magnussen's car catches fire at Malaysian GP practice
Renault driver forced to leap from cockpit to avoid flames
Magnussen was unhurt and able to take part in further practice
F1 fans are always keen for fiery competition on the track but perhaps not in the literal sense.
Renault’s Kevin Magnussen was fortunate to walk away unscathed after his car caught fire in the pit lane during practice for the Malaysian Grand Prix Friday.
The Danish driver had just completed his first installation lap but was forced to make a quick exit as the cockpit was enveloped in flames.
Read: ‘Bullet car’ smashes land-speed record
Renault engineers later blamed the fuel breather system as the source of the fire and revealed that the car had suffered surprisingly little damage.
“We had a fuel leak from a breather,” said Renault technical director, Nick Chester. “It looks like the tank pressurized, but we will investigate. We were running the tank full and we were running some experimental parts really in preparation for Mexico.
“Everyone’s okay, that’s the main thing. Fortunately the car doesn’t seem to be too badly damaged.”
Magnussen returned to the track for the second practice session later in the day, although he could only record the nineteenth fastest time of the 22 drivers on track.
Unsurprisingly the pace was set by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Read: Can Mexico’s first supercar compete with best?
Further back, the Ferrari’s of Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel had the edge on Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
Hamilton will be looking to overturn the narrow advantage held by Rosberg atop the drivers’ standings in Malaysia this weekend.
