Paris, 21 Sept. (AKI) - Renault has been given a two-year suspended ban from Formula One for its role in fixing last year's Singapore Grand Prix. The team was summoned before the sport's governing body, the FIA, to answer charges that team members had asked driver Nelson Piquet Jr. to crash his vehicle, to enable teammate Fernando Alonso to win the race.

Former team boss Flavio Briatore was banned from FIA events for life, while former engineering director Pat Symonds was excluded from the sport for five years.

Briatore and Symonds ended their relationship with Renault last week when the French car giant said it would not contest the charges.

The incident was of “unparalleled severity,” the FIA said after a hearing at its offices in Paris on Monday.

It said that the team had endangered the lives of spectators, officials, other competitors and Nelson Piquet Jr. himself.

The Renault incident is the latest scandal to hit Formula One after the FIA fined McLaren 100 million dollars in 2007 for spying on rival team Ferrari.

It comes amid concern over future commercial support for F-1, after Honda announced its withdrawal last December and BMW AG said it would leave after this year’s series.