Briatore claims title race is fixed

[Wizzo]

Renault chief Flavio Briatore could face the wrath of Formula One's governing body the FIA after claiming this season's world championship battle has been fixed in favour of the departing Michael Schumacher.

Briatore is angry his driver, defending champion Fernando Alonso, was dropped to 10th on the grid for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix for allegedly blocking Ferrari's Felipe Massa in qualifying.

That decision, and a ban on Renault's radical suspension system earlier this year, prompted Briatore to say: "This is a world championship which has already been decided at the table.

"We have understood how things go, it has all been decided," he added on RAI television. "They have decided to give the world championship to Schumacher and that is what will be."

An FIA spokesman revealed those comments will now be investigated.

He said: "The comments attributed to the Renault team principal have been noted by the FIA and are under consideration."

If the FIA choose to take any further action, they could use an emergency meeting of their world motorsport council on September 19 to discuss the matter.

That meeting has been called to discuss a breach of podium protocol in Turkey last month.

FIA president Max Mosley dismissed any suggestion the championship result was being engineered to favour Schumacher, who now trails Alonso by just two points.

"That's a down-the-pub conspiracy theory - look at what happened to Michael at Monaco and Hungary," he said, referring to qualifying penalties handed to Schumacher earlier this season.

Alonso protested his innocence after stewards ruled he had disrupted Massa's lap despite being never less than 100 metres ahead.

Before the race he said: "I am a sportsman, I love sport, I love the fans. I don't consider Formula One anymore like a sport."

After retiring with an engine failure, the world champion was unrepentant.

He added: "I feel the same. We have been seeing very, very strange decisions in the last months and I think it is enough.

"The sport has to be the priority in Formula One - it is not the priority now. It is a shame because the people, the teams, the drivers don't enjoy that."

[Wizzo]

Update

Renault team boss Flavio Briatore has stepped back from comments comparing Formula 1 to Italian soccer's match-fixing scandal and suggesting the championship had been decided "around a table".

He said in a statement that his words on Italian TV, which followed Renault's World champion Fernando Alonso declaring F1 was "no longer a sport", had been taken out of context.

Briatore said in his later statement "a jokey remark has been turned into something it was not intended to be"

"I have every confidence in the governance of our sport and look forward to our team fighting and winning the F1 World championship this season."