Lakshmi Mittal may buy out Flavio Briatore

An order issued to a racing driver to crash his car ended up costing Flavio Briatore, the Italian playboy, his role as manager of Renault's Formula One team. It may also spell the end of his business relationship with Lakshmi Mittal.

The Indian billionaire was persuaded by Briatore to become an investor in Queens Park Rangers football club in 2007, but Mandrake hears that he is now reconsidering his ties with the flamboyant tycoon.

"Lakshmi is extremely concerned about what has happened," says one of his associates. "He is keen to improve his image in this country and takes this matter very seriously. He is now considering whether the best way forward would be for him to buy Flavio out of QPR."

Mittal's son-in-law, Amit Bhatia, is on the board of the west London Championship club.

Briatore could potentially be extradited to Singapore to face criminal charges in the wake of his departure from Renault in connection with the race-fixing claims.

There are also legal challenges open to Ferrari and their driver Felipe Massa, who missed out on last year's world drivers' crown by a single point; and to Renault itself, which may want to sue its former employees for allegedly bringing the company's name into disrepute. Daily Telegraph