Kimi Raikkonen's attempt to close the gap on supposed championship rival Michael S🎐chumacher was dealt an early blow in Bahrain, when another engine proble♒m caused him to lose valuable track time - and ten grid positions.

Although qualifying is ཧnot for another 24 hours, the problem was sufficient for McLaren and Mercedes to admit to needing to change the engine - an act that, this seaso💎n, carries an automatic ten-place starting penalty.

"Kimi's engine stopped after a fire in the air tray caused by a fuel leak," Mercedes' Norbert Haug revealed, "The damage to the engine was severe enough th♉at we need to change it."

Having been guilty of venting h꧋is Malaysian frustration on a track worker, Raikkonen's 'official' post-race 🌼comments were quite restrained.

"I'm obviously disappointed to lose almost all of the second practice session due to an engine failure," he sighed, "All of a sudden, I just lost all power. It's a shame as I was going to go for it, as I had used the first session 🥀to familiarise myself with the 𝓰track."

Team-mate David Coulthard did not have an easy second session, either, and , having placed sixth overall in the opening hour of acti🍃on at the new Bahrain International Circuit, dropped to eleventh after lunch when he suffered a left rear tyre failure.

"Obviously, this is not the best start to the weekend," the Scot said frustrated🍒ly, "The failure caused me to go off the track, and we are looking into why at the moment, as it can be a number of factors."

Team boss Ron Dennis was succinct in🅘 his summation.

"A very disruptive first day for both𒈔 drivers," he admitted, "However, as always, we were concentrating on optimising our race pace, which at this stage doesn't look too bad."

Schumacher, with whom Raikkonen was tipped to be battling for the title, to🌌pped the times in session one, before ceding the advantage to Ferrari team-mate Rubens Bar☂richello.