Motor racing has been plunged into more controversy as Renault Formula One team boss Flavio Briatore said he would sue over suggestions that Nelson Piquet junior was ordered to crash deliberately during a race.

Briatore launched proceedings for alleged blackmail and “outrageous lies” against both the driver and his father, Nelson Piquet senior, who says his 24-year-old son smashed into a wall during a Formula One race to help team-mate Fernando Alonso win the race in Singapore last September.

Piquet junior claimed he had been told to crash at a specific point in the track which had no recovery cranes.

That meant the safety car, which all the drivers have to follow, was introduced just after Alonso had entered the pits, giving him an advantage which allowed him to win the race.

Renault could be thrown out of the world championship if found guilty by the governing body FIA at an inquiry to be held in Paris on 21 September.

Briatore, the flamboyant Italian owner of Queen's Park Rangers football club, launched his counter-attack in a letter to the elder Piquet to be submitted to the inquiry.

He said: “You can easily imagine that I can certainly not accept your contention that the Renault team, myself, and your son entered into some sort of conspiracy that would not only have an impact on the result of the competition, but actually that may put at risk the safety of all the contenders in the Grand Prix just to have Fernando Alonso obtaining a racing advantage.”

He added: “I am outraged that you could think that I myself, not mentioning your son and the other people in the Renault's team, could have any part in such a strategy that may constitute a criminal offence.”

Piquet junior initially said the crash was an accident but made the claims of a conspiracy after he was sacked by Renault in July.

He claimed he went along with the plot because Briatore had put him under “intense stress” and in order to safeguard his place in the team.
After the restart, Alonso, who had refuelled just before the “accident”, went on to win the race.

The former world champion denies any conspiracy.
Briatore had vowed to go to the courts if the matter was made public. The Italian said: “I am forced to consider that your threat constitutes without doubt a blatant attempt of exerting blackmail against Renault F1 and myself to extort an illegitimate advantage by way of threats and outrageous lies on the basis of an alleged hearsay.”