French court overturns Briatore ban

Flavio Briatore and Pat Symonds, the two ousted leading men of Renault F1 have won their court case against the FIA and see their bans from Formula One scrapped. The FIA court had earlier on decided on a lifetime ban for Briatore and a 5-year ban for Symonds due to race fixing.

The FIA ruled in September 2009 that Briatore and his chief engineer Pat Symonds, who was handed a five-year ban, ordered Renault driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to deliberately crash his car to help his teammate Fernando Alonso to win F1's first-ever night race in Singapore.

Quickly after the former judgements by the FIA's court, Briatore argued that the decision to ban him was motivated by personal vengeance by then FIA president Max Mosley. He also claimed that the decision had been made even before the court case, making it invalid.

But both men have had their suspensions quashed by the French high court sitting in Paris.

The pair were also seeking substantial damages against the FIA of $1.5 million, but they have been awarded €15,000 and 5,000 respectively.

The court gave the FIA 15 days to pay Briatore and Symonds, otherwise they will be given a penalty of €10,000 per day.