Kimi Raikkonen engine survived Melbourne fire

Kimi Raikkonen's power unit has survived his fiery exit from the Australian Grand Prix, more reports have claimed.

The Finn retired in the pitlane as a marshal shot fire extinguisher fluid into his flaming airbox, but Italy's Autosprint said that Ferrari were always confident that the actual engine would survive.

"If we had seen on the telemetry that it was a problem with the power unit," said team boss Maurizio Arrivabene, "we would have asked Kimi to immediately turn it off rather than have him return to the box."

Turun Sanomat, a Finnish newspaper reporting from the scene of this weekend's Bahrain Grand Prix, said that the problem was traced to the turbo.

"Ferrari is pleased that an engine change is not necessary," it said, adding that Ferrari sources confirmed that the quick thinking of the fire marshal was instrumental to limiting damage to just the turbo.

Raikkonen finished second in last year's Bahrain race.