Renault escaped severe punishment yesterday for ordering former driver Nelson Piquet Jr to deliberately crash, receiving only a suspended two-year ban from Formula One’s governing body.
Flavio Briatore, who quit as team principal last week, was banned indefinitely from any F1 activities by the World Motor Sport Council (WSMC). Engineering executive director Pat Symonds, who also left the French team last week, was banned for five years after expressing his “eternal regret and shame” that he participated in the conspiracy.
“We gave them a suspended sentence because Renault demonstrated that the team had no responsibility and the company even less,” FIA president Max Mosley said. “The penalty for Briatore is that he is no longer associated with the FIA series.”
FIA described the scandal as being of “unparalleled severity,” but the departure of Renault’s top two men meant the team avoided being thrown out of F1 or handed a heavy fine, although they will pay for the investigation.
“Renault F1’s breaches not only compromised the integrity of the sport but also endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr himself,” FIA said.
“The World Motor Sport Council considers that offenses of this severity merit permanent disqualification from the FIA Formula One World Championship,” it said.
“However, having regard to the points in mitigation mentioned above and in particular the steps taken by Renault F1 to identify and address the failings within its team and condemn the actions of the individuals involved, the WMSC has decided to suspend Renault F1’s disqualification until the end of the 2011 season,” it said.
Renault team president Bernard Rey gave no response to a question about whether Renault would stay in the sport next season.
“We informed the FIA last week that we would not defend the charges and we accepted our responsibilities in relation to the incident in Singapore and we immediately took appropriate action inside the team,” Rey said.
“Today, we fully accept the decision of the council. We apologize unreservedly to the F1 community in relation to this unacceptable behavior,” he said.
Piquet, who was given immunity by FIA, was ordered to crash at last year’s Singapore Grand Prix to help Spanish teammate Fernando Alonso win.
Former world champion Alonso, who attended the hearing in Paris, was cleared of any wrongdoing.
“He answered all the questions and demonstrated that he had no responsibility in the case,” Mosley said.
The Rakuten Monkeys on Sunday downed the CTBC Brothers 2-1, handing the hosts their second consecutive loss in the best-of-seven CPBL Taiwan Series at the Taipei Dome. Monkeys’ ace starter Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic dominated on the mound, cruising through six scoreless innings before giving up a run on a wild pitch in the bottom of the seventh inning. He gave up only three hits and walked two batters in a 93-pitch outing, giving his Taoyuan-based team an edge. Offensively, the Monkeys’ leadoff batter Lin Li hit Brothers starter Brandon Leibrandt’s pitch over the center-field wall in the game’s first at-bat,
Rafael Leao on Sunday shot AC Milan to the top of Serie A with a brace in a 2-1 win over ACF Fiorentina who were enraged by the “scandalous” awarding of the penalty that decided the game. Portugal winger Leao pushed Milan one point ahead of local rivals Inter, SSC Napoli and AS Roma with a coolly taken spot-kick, given for what looked like a soft foul on Santiago Gimenez by Fabiano Parisi, with four minutes remaining. That goal capped a fine first league start of the season for Leao and came after he drew the hosts level with a brilliantly struck
The tiny village club of Mjallby AIF on Monday won the top tier Swedish soccer league with a 2-0 away win at IFK Gothenburg, sealing the title with three rounds of matches remaining. Jacob Bergstrom and Tom Pettersson scored the goals in Mjallby’s 20th win in 27 league games. Mjallby has a population of fewer than 1,400 people and plays in an outdated 6,000-seat stadium with stands weathered by the winds of the Baltic Sea. “It’s a huge relief to experience this now, a relief with three games to go,” said Anders Torstensson, a former army officer and secondary-school teacher who coaches the
Sean Dyche on Thursday achieved in his first game with Nottingham Forest what predecessor Ange Postecoglou could not in eight matches in charge: Win. Under its new coach, Nottingham Forest presented a concentrated display resulting in a 2-0 victory over Porto in the UEFA Europa League. It was the first victory for Nottingham in the competition and only the second overall this season, while Porto were defeated for the first time this season. Morgan Gibbs-White converted from the penalty spot in the 19th minute at the City Ground in West Bridgford, England. Igor Jesus doubled the advantage from another penalty in the 77th
RSS