The FIA began a detailed probe on Friday night after two separate fires on the same area of grass inside Turn 7 disrupted running on the opening day of track action.
First practice for the Chinese Grand Prix on Friday morning had to be red-flagged after a blaze erupted on the grass before the same section later caught fire at the end of the first session of sprint qualifying.
While there was no red flag this time, because session running had already ended, it did trigger a delay to the start of SQ2.
The FIA sent personnel to the area on Friday evening to conduct an analysis of what was causing the problems, but there has been no firm conclusion.
While it seems certain that flying sparks from F1 cars are being thrown into the grass, triggering the fires, what isn’t known is what is causing things to burn so much.
It is understood that there is no sign of there being a flammable material or chemicals on the grass – which could perhaps have been discarded there in the build up to the weekend.
There have been theories about the fires being fuelled by methane gas seeping up through the ground and then getting ignited.
Source: Autosport