Engine woe for Raikkonen

Kimi Raikkonen's season went from bad to worse at Imola when a problem was identified in the Mercedes engine of his McLaren. He took part in qualifying, but only to scrub-in a set of tyres, and will have an engine switch before the start of Sunday's race

Imola will be the second race in a row that Raikkonen will have to start at the tail of the field due to engine dramas.

"Obviously I'm disappointed to experience the same sort of thing two races in a row," said Raikkonen. "However there is nothing I can do about it, and I will just go out tomorrow and do the best I can. I will have a new engine and a lot of determination, so we will see what happens."

McLaren boss Ron Dennis added: "Although it's clearly not apparent, we have made progress since the Bahrain Grand Prix. Kimi's problem was related to a damaged exhaust valve seatring which was not considered by the engineers to be able to finish the race. As a result we took the decision to change the engine and his race strategy for tomorrow."

Another to hit trouble was Sauber's Giancarlo Fisichella, who was sixth fastest in pre-qualifying but failed to take his slot in qualifying proper due to a gearbox problem. He said: "It's a shame because it's my home GP. I'm disappointed because I did a very good time in pre-qualifying."