Steiner: It's all burned but we can't jump to conclusions

Team chief Guenther Steiner told reporters in Sochi, "We don't know what happened yet, because it's all burned but we cannot jump to a conclusion. I don't want to put any panic on to what actually happened, because we don't know."

"I think one security guard saw it, and then they all worked together to extinguish it. A lucky escape, and it's good that they worked together and caught it, because if tyres go on fire they are difficult to extinguish."

Teams are wary of one another's tyre warming tactics, some suggesting that turning up the warmers overnight, in effect curing the rubber, may make them more efficient on track.

But Steiner denied the suggestion, "They were not used overnight. They were plugged in, otherwise there would have been no fire, but they were not turned up. They were just on standby."

"Now we'll have to unplug them at night. What they do normally is just come in in the morning and switch them on, everything is cabled up," explained Steiner.