Racing takes a back seat as Renault face expulsion

MOTOR SPORT/ITALIAN GRAND PRIX PREVIEW:ADRIAN SUTIL'S blistering final lap in free practice ahead of the Italian Grand Prix may have confirmed the rise of Force India as a power in Formula One on circuits such as Monza, which puts power at a premium, but it was the presence, seconds before the German's final run, of the twin Renaults of Romain Grosjean and Fernando Alonso at the top of the time sheets that caught the eye.

Not though for the re-installation of KERS on the Renault cars in a bid to claw back ground on the front-running teams. Not for the injection of pace the troublesome energy recovery system appears to have given its drivers on Monza’s super-fast straights. The raised eyebrows simply stemmed from the incongruity of potentially the quickest team on the day being the one facing possible ejection from the sport in 10 days’ time.

Following allegations from former Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr, replaced by Grosjean after this year’s Hungarian GP that, at the team’s behest, he deliberately crashed during last year’s Singapore Grand Prix to promote team-mate Fernando Alonso to a race-winning position, Renault will now face an FIA hearing on the 21st of this month at which, if found guilty of influencing the outcome of the race, could see the French marque being excluded from the series.

That much was confirmed by outgoing FIA president Max Mosley who, harking back to the McLaren spying case of 2007, in which the team was fined €68 million and stripped of all constructors’ championship points for possessing Ferrari design schematics, admitted yesterday that Renault’s alleged transgression could be judged far worse. “The problem with McLaren was that they were not telling the truth,” Mosley said. “But purely regarding what Renault is accused of, this (the crash accusation) is perhaps worse.”

Mosley though was cautious regarding the statements to the FIA made by Piquet Jr, in which the sacked driver insists he was asked by Renault F1 boss Flavio Briatore and engineering chief Pat Symonds to crash and thus guarantee a safety car period which would catapult Alonso up the race order. Piquet insists he believed complying with the request would guarantee him a race seat at the team for the 2009 season.

“We do not have enough evidence in hand because we have not heard the story from the perspective of Renault,” Mosley said. “There are always two sides to a coin and we have to respect that.” If found guilty Renault could, however, seek to ameliorate any punishments meted by citing Ferrari ‘fixing’ the result of the 2002 Austrian GP by making Rubens Barrichello pull across just a few hundred metres shy of the finish line to allow Michael Schumacher to claim victory.

The fine meted out to Ferrari then was a meagre €686,000.

Renault hit back yesterday saying it would pursue legal action against Piquet Jnr and his father, three-time Formula One world champion Nelson Piquet Snr.

“Renault F1 Team and its managing director Flavio Briatore wish to state that they have commenced criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Junior and Nelson Piquet Senior in France concerning the making of false allegations and a related attempt to blackmail the team into allowing Mr Piquet Jr to drive for the remainder of the 2009 season,” read a team statement. The matter will also be referred to the police in (Britain).”

With all the chaos and fury once again taking place backstage, free practice for tomorrow’s race was a muted affair, with many of the season’s title contenders failing to shine. Red Bull Racing’s Mark Webber was left 14th at the end of the afternoon with fellow title-challenging team-mate Sebastain Vettel back in 18th, after once again largely sitting out the morning session in abid to conserve his dwindling supply of engines. “It’s quite a surprise to look at the lap times and see who’s on top and who’s in the midfield,” Vettel said. “Nothing is wrong for us and everything went to plan. We’ve got to improve though and we need to go and have a look at who was really fast and who was playing with fuel loads, but at this stage it seems to be impossible to predict who will be on top.”

For the second race in a row that is unlikely to be any of the major title contenders. Brawn rivals Jenson Button and Rubens Barrichello ended the day 19th and 16th respectively and for the second race in a row it was the late bloomers at Force India, McLaren, BMW and Ferrari who seemed most in control.