Times escribió:The key to the allegations against Renault at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix was reported last night to be a meeting just before the race between Nelson Piquet Jr, Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds at which Piquet claims he was instructed to crash his car on purpose.
The meeting, which is thought to have taken place in one of the Renault offices at the track, was convened so that Piquet could discuss race tactics with Briatore, the team principal, and Symonds, the Renault director of engineering. But reports last night claimed that Piquet has told the FIA in evidence that at the meeting he was asked to crash his car to help his team-mate, Fernando Alonso, to win the race on September 28, which he did.
Piquet is said to have agreed to the scheme because he was uncertain of his future at Renault at that stage, having not renewed his contract for 2009. The Brazilian driver, who was sacked by Renault at the end of July this year, is thought to have told the FIA that he went ahead with the plan only because he thought he would be rewarded for his actions.
Piquet is said to have told investigators working for the FIA that he was instructed by Symonds to crash his car on lap 13 or 14 of the 61-lap race, shortly after Alonso’s first pitstop, and that he should do so at turn 17, where the team had spotted that there were no cranes to remove his car quickly, thus making a safety-car interruption inevitable.
Piquet’s claims, however, have been denied by Briatore and Symonds in documents that have been submitted to the FIA.
Although they confirm that a meeting took place with Piquet, they say that it was the Brazilian’s suggestion to cause an accident, not theirs. Briatore was quoted as saying he felt he was a victim of “extortion” by the Piquet family, while Symonds said the subject of trying to cause a safety-car deployment did come up, but it was “just a conversation”.
Sources have also claimed that the FIA was first informed of the allegations by Piquet’s father, Nelson Piquet Sr, who contacted Max Mosley, the FIA president, on July 26, the day of his son’s final race for the team, at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Piquet Jr is said to have visited the FIA four days later in Paris to give a statement to officials. After the disclosure that it is investigating the case, the FIA has scheduled an extraordinary meeting of its World Motor Sport Council on September 21 to discuss the matter and consider what sanctions to take, should Renault be found guilty.