Lotus Renault's Malaysian Grand Prix weekend has begun in disastrous fashion after the team's hospitality unit was destroyed by an overnight fire.

A faulty fridge fuse has been cited as the cause of the blaze, which occurred at the two-storey unit at around 3.30am local time.

The drivers' rooms were affected, although the racing suits of Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean were able to be saved.

Stephane Samson, head of Lotus's marketing and communications, said: "There was a fire in the hospitality unit due to the failure of a fridge fuse, with the whole hospitality and kitchen destroyed.

"Thankfully a security guard was able to save the drivers' race suits which are currently being dry cleaned as they were affected by smoke. They were a bit smelly.

"Everything else has been lost - a couple of laptops, along with everything required to carry out our marketing and PR this weekend. The comms team are maybe going to try to work in the media centre, certainly for this morning at least."

Lotus hospitality has had to be relocated to the bottom end of the paddock at the Sepang International Circuit.