• Crashgate

Piquets sue Briatore for £200,000

ESPNF1 Staff
March 31, 2010 « Sutil on Sepang's 'interesting challenges' | »
Nelson Piquet Jr. with Flavio Briatore at the 2007 Australian Grand Prix © Sutton Images
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Former Renault F1 driver Nelson Piquet Jnr and his triple world championship-winning father of the same name have launched a libel court action against former team boss Flavio Briatore.

Piquet Jnr and Briatore were at the centre of the infamous Crashgate scandal at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix. Briatore was subsequently given an indefinite ban from motorsport, a decision overturned by a Paris court in January and currently subject of an appeal by the FIA.

Now the Piquets are seeking £200,000 in damages as a result of a press release issued by Renault in September 2009 which claimed they had given false evidence to the FIA and of attempting to blackmail the team.

The Piquets' lawyer, Dominic Crossley, told the Daily Mail: "Given Renault F1's failure to accept the Piquets' invitation to withdraw the allegations and apologise, they feel they have no other choice but to demonstrate the falsity of these allegations in court."

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