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'Piquet Singapore crash result of pre-race meeting'

10 September 2009

Reports on Thursday have suggested that Nelson Piquet's race-ending crash in the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix was believed to have taken place following a pre-race meeting between the Brazilian and Renault team chiefs Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds.

A Singapore disqualification for Renault would hand victory to Nico Rosberg and Williams

The French team will go before the FIA World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) on Monday 21 September as it remains under investigation for causing a deliberate crash in order benefit the team's other driver, Fernando Alonso, thanks to the deployment of the Safety Car in Singapore City.

Piquet's car spun and hit the Turn 17 wall to retire on Lap 14, with the Safety Car immediately being brought out as a consequence. Alonso, who had already made his first pit-stop after starting 15th, then inherited the lead as the previous leaders were forced to travel at slower speeds behind the Safety Car whilst waiting for the pit lane to open.

Reports claim that Piquet was feeling 'uncomfortable' inside the Renault team

Autosport reports on Thursday, however, that a meeting between Piquet, Briatore (Team Principal and Manager to the driver) and Symonds (Executive Director of Engineering) planned the event shortly before the start of the race. Furthermore, Piquet is believed to have accepted the plan due to feeling 'uncomfortable' over his future with the team and lacking a 2009 race contract at the time.

The reports claim that Piquet, whose relationship with the Enstone outfit ended in disrepute this season, was instructed to crash on either Lap 13 or 14, a few minutes after Alonso's pit-stop; in addition, Turn 17 is also believed to have been pointed out as a crash location due to the lack of cranes for lifting the car out of harm's way, ensuring the Safety Car would come out.

Renault will go before the FIA World Motor Sport Council in Paris on Monday 21 September

The claims go on to state that Piquet contacted FIA President Max Mosley of the sequence of events on Sunday 26 July 2009 - the day of the driver's last race for Renault in Hungary. "I confirm the meeting with Piquet on Sunday morning but nothing like that was ever talked about," quotes from Briatore read. "I also remember that Piquet at Singapore was in a very fragile state of mind. Besides that, there are the audio recordings where I express disappointment when I see on the screens that Piquet had crashed."

"It's true, during the Sunday meeting with Piquet the issue of deliberately causing a SC deployment came up, but it was proposed by Piquet himself," Symonds is believed to have said. "It was just a conversation." Autosport also reports on Thursday that race winner Fernando Alonso knew nothing of the supposed arrangement.

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