Heikki Kovalainen is expecting a pay-rise from Lotus following his firefighting exploits in yesterday's Singapore Grand Prix.

Kovalainen was involved in one of the more dramatic incidents of yesterday's night race when his car caught fire on the penultimate lap.

Reacting intuitively, the Finn opted not to head to his garage in the pitlane, but instead - with flames bursting from the back of his car - pulled up on the start-finish straight.

Kovalainen was then handed an extinguisher by the Williams team and proceeded to douse the fire himself.

"That was not quite how I thought my race would end," said Kovalainen.

"Until the fire I was having a really strong run, and the car had felt good throughout.

"We were looking good for 15th, but then I had a coming-together with (Toro Rosso's Sebastien) Buemi towards the end of the race.

"I spun the car to get back onto the track, which I think cracked the fuel tank pressure release valve and it looks like that caused an airbox fire.

"I didn't want to come into the pits as it definitely wasn't safe enough to do so, and pulled over on the main straight.

"A couple of guys from Williams gave me an extinguisher, so I put the fire out on my own.

"I've told (team owner) Tony (Fernandes) and (chief technical officer) Mike (Gascoyne) that they maybe need to pay me more as I'm now a fireman as well."

Appreciating Kovalainen's efforts, Gascoyne said: "Heikki clearly had a pretty dramatic race.

"When the fire started he made the decision not to come into the pitlane for safety reasons, and did very well to put the fire out himself.

"The main thing really is to say thanks to him for being brave enough to put it out, and be thankful he's fine after what was a pretty spectacular end to his race."