Indefinite ban for Briatore as Renault get off lightly

Flavio Briatore has been barred from motor racing indefinitely for his part in the Renault Formula One race-fixing scandal, but the team he led has escaped with a suspended sentence.

Briatore and Renault's chief engineer Pat Symonds, who was banned for five years, ordered driver Nelson Piquet Jnr to crash out of the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix on purpose to help his team mate Fernando Alonso, who went on to win the race.

The scandal broke when Piquet made the allegations after being fired from the team midway through the season. At first Renault denied the accusations but in a dramatic development last week it announced that Briatore and Symonds (pictured above) had left the team and that it would not contest the allegations - in effect an admission of guilt.

At the hearing in Paris, Renault were handed a two year suspended sentence by the FIA. If they are found to be in breach of the rules again during that time they will be thrown out of the sport.

Briatore was banned indefinitely from any F1 activities by the World Motor Sport Council, which said it would not renew the licences of any driver associated with him. That means that drivers who are managed by Briatore will have to terminate their contracts. They include Alonso, Piquet, Mark Webber and Heikki Kovalainen. The WMSC also said it would not sanction any event Briatore was involved with "in any capacity whatsoever".

Engineering executive director Symonds was banned for five years after expressing his "eternal regret and shame" for participating in the conspiracy.

Piquet was handed immunity by the FIA for revealing all about the plot. After the hearing he said working for Briatore had been a "nightmare" and pleaded for a fresh start in F1. "I do not expect this to be forgiven or forgotten but at least now people can draw their conclusions based upon what really happened," he said.

FIA president Max Mosley explained that the Renault team was not behind the scandal, which was why they escaped further punishment. "We gave them a suspended sentence because Renault demonstrated that the team had no responsibility and the company even less," he said. "The penalty for Briatore is that he is no longer associated with the FIA series."

A contrite Renault team president Bernard Rey said: "Today, we fully accept the decision of the council. We apologize unreservedly to the F1 community in relation to this unacceptable behaviour." ·