Massa was leading the inaugural race in Singapore from pole position when Piquet deliberately crashed at Turn 17 on lap 14 to bring out a safety car.

That benefitted Alonso, who had made an earlier pit stop than his competitors.

During the safety-car period, Ferrari botched Massa’s pit stop and he left the pits with the fuel hose attached to the car, accidentally knocking over a crew member.

He rejoined the track towards the back of the field and finished 13th, outside the points.

Hamilton, who came third, increased his championship lead over Massa to seven points.

At the time, Piquet described the shunt into the wall as a “simple mistake”.

However, when Renault dropped him during the 2009 season, he revealed he had been asked by the team to deliberately crash and his actions led to an investigation which resulted in Renault team principal Flavio Briatore and chief technical officer Pat Symonds being banned from F1 for several years.

Alonso was cleared of wrongdoing and the FIA found no evidence he was aware of the plan.

Briatore is now executive adviser to the Alpine team, while Symonds is part of the Andretti Cadillac F1 programme.