Renault still looking into engine problem

Alonso put in Renault's best performance of the season so far, after qualifying on the front row and then battling hard for third position with Lewis Hamilton in the opening stages of the race.

But his hopes of a points-scoring finish were dashed when he suffered an engine failure on lap 35, resulting in his first retirement of the campaign.

Renault's engine chief Rob White said the team would launch a full investigation into what went wrong, although insisted there was no reason to panic over the matter.

"There was no warning Fernando's engine failure was coming," said White. "And how we go about resolving the problem doesn't change. We need the same discipline and the same speed of reaction, to decide what counter-measures might be required."

Renault's head of trackside operations, Denis Chevrier, added that the failure caught the team by surprise.

"You know it's a typical very sudden failure, something which really could be considered worrying perhaps half a lap before. But there was nothing we could do, nothing in accordance with how we used the engine.

"It was quite low on mileage compared to a normal race engine potential. It was a pure failure, and we must make sure what it is, then consider how it involves the next engines. The only question now is what to do in the future."