'Crashgate' scandal that shook Formula 1 to its core – On This Day

18 years ago today, Fernando Alonso won the Singapore Grand Prix from 15th on the grid, in what stood as one of Formula 1's most dramatic victories until it was revealed, a year later, to be one of its most rotten.

The 2008 race was the first F1 grand prix held under floodlights, run on the Marina Bay street circuit. 

Alonso had qualified poorly for Renault and started on an unusually light fuel load, pitting early on lap 12. Two laps later, his team-mate Nelson Piquet Jr crashed into the wall at Turn 17.

The safety car was deployed, and under the regulations in place that year, the pit lane was closed to those already circulating. 

Cars running ahead of Alonso, several on old tyres and low fuel, were left stranded or hit with stop-and-go penalties once they eventually pitted. 

Alonso, having pitted just before the chaos, emerged in the lead without needing to pass a single car on a circuit notorious for its lack of overtaking opportunities. He held that lead to the flag, with Nico Rosberg second and Lewis Hamilton third.

For a year, the result stood unchallenged. The truth emerged only after Piquet was dropped by Renault mid-way through the following season.

Renault disqualified following extensive investigations

In sworn testimony given in July and August 2009, Piquet told the FIA that team principal Flavio Briatore and engineering director Pat Symonds had instructed him to crash deliberately, with Symonds reportedly selecting Turn 17 specifically because the lack of cranes and access points there would guarantee a safety car. 

FIA investigators cross-checked his account against telemetry, which showed sustained throttle application through the corner consistent with a deliberate, rather than accidental, loss of control.

The FIA World Motor Sport Council met on 21 September 2009 and disqualified Renault from the championship, though the sanction was suspended for two years. Briatore was handed an indefinite ban from the sport and Symonds a five-year ban. Piquet was granted full immunity for his cooperation, and Alonso was formally cleared of any knowledge of the plot.

The story did not end there. A French court overturned the original sanctions on procedural grounds in early 2010, after which Briatore and Symonds settled with the FIA, agreeing to stay out of Formula 1 operational roles until the end of 2012. 

The closed-pit-lane rule that had made the plan work was scrapped for 2009, replaced by a delta-time system that slows cars under Safety Car conditions without shutting the pit lane entirely.

Questions over who first proposed the crash, Piquet or his bosses, were never fully resolved, and remain a point of dispute to this day.