The president of the International Automobile Federation (FIA), Mohamed bin Sulayem, is under investigation for allegedly interfering with the result of last year's Formula 1 race for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
A whistleblower told the FIA that Ben Sulayem allegedly intervened to overturn Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso's penalty, the BBC reported.
The claim is contained in a report by the FIA's Ethics Committee compliance officer Paolo Basari, which the BBC has seen.
The whistleblower said Ben Sulayem called Sheikh Al Khalifa, who is the FIA's vice-president of sport for the Middle East and North Africa region, and told him he thought Alonso's punishment should be overturned.
Alonso received a 10-second penalty for illegal work on his car while serving a previous five-second penalty during the race.
Because of that penalty, Alonso fell from third to fourth place, behind George Russell from Mercedes, and the withdrawal of the penalty returned him to the podium.
The report said the whistleblower said Ben Sulayem had asked the stewards to overturn their decision to penalize Alonso.
He reportedly used the term "pretendere", which in Italian means to demand or expect.
The Ethics Committee is expected to take four to six weeks to rule on the case.
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