Massa files lawsuit over ‘Crashgate’

LEWIS Hamilton’s first Formula One world championship is the subject of legal action after Felipe Massa filed a lawsuit against Formula One, its governing body the FIA and the sport’s former supremo Bernie Ecclestone in London’s High Court.

Massa, 42, believes he is the rightful winner of the 2008 title he lost to Hamilton by just a single point following the “Crashgate” scandal at that year’s Singapore Grand Prix.

Renault staged a win for Fernando Alonso by ordering Nelson Piquet Jr to crash in the other car. Ferrari’s Massa, leading at the time of Piquet’s smash, finished 13th, before losing the championship at the final round in Brazil.

Piquet revealed the next season he was under instruction by his bosses to deliberately crash. However, Ecclestone, who bossed F1 for four decades before he was deposed in 2017, revealed last year F1 executives were aware of the cover-up before the 2008 campaign concluded.

Lawyers acting on Massa’s behalf want the FIA to acknowledge it “breached its regulations by failing to promptly investigate” Piquet’s crash, as well as seeking compensation for the former Ferrari driver.

A statement from Brazilian law firm Vieira Rezende Advogados read: “Mr Massa is seeking declarations that the FIA breached its regulations by failing to promptly investigate

Nelson Piquet Junior’s crash at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix, and that had it acted properly, Mr Massa would have won the championship that year.”

Hamilton said last September: “If that’s the direction that Felipe wants to go, that’s his decision. I prefer not to focus on the past. I’m only interested in the present.”

Ecclestone, 93, said: “If he had asked me, I would have said it was the complete right thing to do, to sue, and to let an English judge decide what is right and wrong.”

An FIA spokesman said: “We will not be providing any comment on the matter.”

F1 declined to comment.