Motor Racing: Former F1's Briatore seeks 1 million euros in damages
Posted: 12 November 2009 1614 hrs

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LONDON : Disgraced former Renault team head Flavio Briatore is seeking one million euros in compensation from Formula One's governing body over the crash-gate scandal, according to a report.

Briatore is appealing his life ban from the sport in a Paris court later this month, and will claim the FIA's World Motor Sport Council did not follow proper rules and procedures in making its decision.

He wants the ban overturned and a minimum of one million euros (900,000 pounds, 1.4 million dollars) for damages to his reputation, The Guardian newspaper said, citing documents in the case.

The move follows former Renault driver Nelson Piquet junior's claims that he had been ordered to deliberately crash at the 2008 Singapore race to allow teammate Fernando Alonso to win.

Briatore, who quit in the aftermath of the scandal, was handed a lifetime ban and chief engineer Pat Symonds was suspended for five years when the World Motor Sport Council met in Paris in September.

According to the newspaper, Symonds will join the appeal to have his suspension overturned, claiming the World Motor Sport Council's hearings into the scandal were conducted in an improper fashion.

Briatore will allege that FIA chief Max Mosley was "clearly blinded by an excessive desire for personal revenge," according to the Guardian.

"The decisions to carry out an investigation and to submit it to the World Council were taken by the same person, the FIA president," the paper said, quoting a statement in the case.

Mosley "assumed the roles of complainant, investigator, prosecutor and judge," the statement claimed.

During 2009, it alleged, there had been "some extremely violent disputes" between Briatore, representing the Formula One Teams Association, and Mosley.

The disputes centred on the threat of a breakaway series to Formula One, and led Mosley to abandon his plan to stand for a fifth term as FIA head.

- AFP /ls