'I got Mosley 41 votes'

(GMM) The highest ranking motor racing official in the United Arab Emirates has admitted that his influence got embattled FIA president Max Mosley over the line in the recent confidence vote.

F1 chief executive Bernie Ecclestone recently poured scorn on Mosley's Paris victory by suggesting that a plethora of the votes in his favor came from the various influences in Africa.

But it now emerges that Mohammad Bin Sulayem, chief of motor sports in the UAE, controlled no less than 41 of the 169 total votes cast.

"Yes, you are right. I had got him so many votes," Sulayem, also a successful rally driver, said in an interview with Gulf News.

"Yes, I made the difference. I don't deny it," he added.

Sulayem is unashamedly a staunch Mosley supporter, and has referred to the sex scandal as a "terrorist attack on his personal life".

"If anyone can convince me that he has done wrong to motor sport or during his tenure his decisions have hurt formula one or rallying then we have a case. But not over his personal and private affairs," he said.