Nelson Piquet Junior claims his former team Renault had “threatened” to withdraw his contract unless he agreed to purposefully crash during the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix.

The fate of Flavio Briatore was yesterday sealed on the evidence of a secret whistleblower within Renault, codenamed ’Witness X’.

Renault were today given a suspended permanent disqualification from Formula One after motorsport's governing body ruled on Nelson Piquet Jr's crash during last year's Singapore Grand Prix.

RENAULT’S future in Formula One hangs in the balance ahead of today’s extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council into the circumstances surrounding Nelson Piquet Jr’s crash during last year’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Former Jordan Formula One racer Ralph Firman was one of the early pace-setters in the second practice session at the A1 Grand Prix at the Lausitzring in Germany.