Brazilian GP: Ferrari knew Fernando Alonso risked engine failure

Alonso brought out one of the afternoon's three red flags when he had to park at the side of the track after his V6 failed and then caught fire.

The double F1 world champion grabbed a fire extinguisher to deal with the incident himself.

Alonso had hinted in the United States that Ferrari was in jeopardy of exceeding its engine allocation for 2014 and would be using up higher-mileage components while keeping its best machinery for the double points finale in Abu Dhabi.

He said the engine that failed at Interlagos was making its last appearance anyway.

"Today we knew that the power unit had reached the end of its cycle," said Alonso.

"So there was a risk we wouldn't finish the second session, but this was part of the programme we have been on for a few races now.

"It's always a shame not being able to use all the time available, even though I don't think it affected our work too much."

Ferrari technical chief Pat Fry said the failure added to the team's workload but otherwise mattered little.

"The fire, it's a high-mileage Friday engine, to be honest," he said.

"I'm sure every team's in a similar boat so it doesn't really affect the strategy that we run on a Saturday and a Sunday.

"It looks more spectacular and it's hard work for us to clean it all up but it's not that big a deal."