The fire in Nick Heidfeld's Renault during final practice was the result of an exhaust failure.
The German's car caught alight during the morning's running, with the damage preventing Heidfeld from taking part in practice.
"It was a failure from the right hand exhaust which caught fire," explained Renault chief engineer Alan Permane.
"The bodywork around it then caught fire too and made quite a mess.
"Nick was able to park the car and get out without any harm to him, but there was a lot of work required in a short period to fix the car ready for qualifying. We tried hard, but unfortunately we were not able to get the car ready for the session. We fitted a different engine and essentially replaced the entire rear end of the car, including gearbox, suspension, radiators and wiring looms."
While understandably unhappy with the way that the day had unfolded, the 34-year-old remained upbeat regarding his chances of performing strongly in the race.
"It was a challenging day, and there was not much more we could have done after the exhaust problem this morning," he said.
The was a small hole in the right exhaust and then it overheated. Then, when I heard a strange noise, the power cut out and there were flames so I had to stop.
"Since then, the team worked flat out to try and get me out for the qualifying session, but it was not to be. At least I managed to get a couple of laps on the hard tyres today, and during the race tomorrow I will need to push hard to make up some ground and get up the order," he added.
