The Renault Formula One team has apologised unreservedly to triple world champion Nelson Piquet and his son and agreed to pay them substantial damages for libel resulting from 2009 race-fixing allegations.
Piquet junior triggered one of the sport's biggest scandals last year when he told formula one's governing body he'd been ordered to crash deliberately at the 2008 Singapore Grand Prix to help his team mate Fernando Alonso win.
Former champions Renault, who were subsequently handed a suspended permanent ban, had issued a media release last September accusing the Brazilians of lying as part of a blackmail attempt.
In a statement read out in the London High Court, Renault said it accepts that the allegations made by Nelson Piquet Junior were not false, and that he and his father did not invent the allegations in order to blackmail the Team.
Piquet junior is now racing in the NASCAR truck series in the United States after failing to find any further opportunities in Formula One.
