Trulli to Use Same Engine Despite Failure

The Renault team will not have to replace Jarno Trulli's engine despite the Italian stopping on track in today's practice for the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Trulli suffered a water leak during the first practice session, which limited his mileage, and his R24 stopped in the second session with a problem within the engine's fuel system. The Italian pulled over with flames emerging from the rear of the car.

Trulli, however, will escape a penalty, as Renault said the problem will not require the unit to be changed.

"It wasn't the best day ever, but I'm not too disappointed," said Trulli, who finished as 18th fastest. "We could certainly have done more mileage, but we nevertheless managed to improve the car during the day.

"Sure, it was a bit of bad luck to have an engine problem but fortunately, we don't think it is too serious - and it is better for that to happen today than on Sunday."

Spain's Fernando Alonso, who in the second session had to nurse his Renault home on a bare rim following a tyre failure, wound up ninth fastest.

"It is not really a demanding circuit for the drivers, because the straights give you a bit of time to rest," said Alonso. "However, if you go off line, you need at least half a lap to clean the tyres up again. Our objective for today wasn't to get a definitive set-up, but rather to do lots of running to learn about the track.

"We didn't make too many set-up changes because the circuit was changing a lot, and we should get a better idea of performance tomorrow."