F1: Felipe Massa claims he was rightful 2008 champion, not Lewis Hamilton

Felipe Massa

Former Formula One driver Felipe Massa (below) has accused auto racing's governing body of conspiring to prevent him from winning the 2008 title, and the Brazilian claims he is the "rightful" champion.

Massa, who was the runners-up to Lewis Hamilton in the 2008 season, made his claim in a letter sent to the FIA in the first step of a legal battle to take place in Britain. "Simply put, Mr. Massa is the rightful 2008 champion, and F1 and the FIA deliberately ignored the misconduct that stripped him of that title," the letter states.

A member of Massa's management team told The Associated Press on Thursday that the letter was also sent to Formula One Management, alleging the two bodies failed to act after learning that same year that Renault's Nelson Piquet Jr had deliberately crashed at the Singapore Grand Prix to help then-teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever