Briatore wins F1 appeal
Tuesday, 5 January 2010
Flavio Briatore is free to return to Formula One after a French court today overturned his lifetime ban from motorsport.
The FIA handed the former Renault team principal the stringent suspension in September for his role in the 'crashgate' scandal.
The 59-year-old Italian took his case to the Tribunal de Grande Instance in Paris claiming the FIA did not have legal grounds to issue him with a wholesale ban.
Renault's former director of engineering, Pat Symonds, has also had his five-year suspension quashed by the TGI.
However, Briatore and Symonds have only received €15,000 and €5,000 apiece in damages after initially seeking €1million and €500,000 respectively.
The FIA now have 15 days to pay the duo, otherwise they will be liable to a penalty of €10,000 euros per day.
According to French media, the judge presiding over the case is understood to have claimed the FIA's sanction 'was illegal.'
