Ferrari had concerns about Kimi Raikkonen's engine before it failed in Sunday's European Grand Prix and dealt a major blow to the Formula One world champion's title hopes.

The Italian team said on their website (www.ferrariworld.com) there were reasons to suspect the failure was similar to one that deprived Brazilian Felipe Massa of victory in the previous Hungarian Grand Prix.

Initial analysis of Raikkonen's engine confirmed a broken con rod, the cause of Massa's retirement at the Hungaroring, but further checks were being carried out at the team's Maranello factory.

"The engineers were aware of a potential risk in general terms with the 056 engine fitted to Kimi's car, which was on its second race, given that the con rods were part of the same batch used on Felipe's engine," Ferrari said.

"Changing the engine on Kimi's car would have seen the Finn start from far down the grid at a track where it appeared that overtaking was impossible, proving it's not enough to bring Formula One to a street circuit in a fantastic location to produce spectacular racing."

Raikkonen had been second in the championship, five points behind McLaren's Lewis Hamilton, before the race at Valencia's new street circuit.

The retirement dropped the Finn to third place overall, 13 adrift of the Briton with six races remaining.