Sauber’s pit lane fire in Mugello on Thursday was not an engine issue, the Swiss team has confirmed to GPUpdate.net. Initially, when Sergio Pérez pulled into the pit lane, it was unknown whether the blaze was related to a major technical component.
“It was just a heat shield in the exhaust area that had caught fire and was obviously replaced,” a team spokesperson explained after Pérez ended the day in fifth place.
The Mexican concentrated mostly on aerodynamics, testing new parts and the setup which will be used in Barcelona next weekend. Struggling for balance at times, he suffered a pair of off-track moments but did not damage the car.
Stressing that lap times were of no real significance, Sauber also verified that their car was circulating with heavy fuel loads on-board.
Source: http://www.gpupdate.net