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The Renault team and its boss Flavio Briatore have begun criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Junior and Nelson Piquet Senior following an alleged attempt "to blackmail" the French squad.

Renault is facing allegations of race-fixing after Piquet Jr told the FIA saying he had been asked to crash during the Singapore Grand Prix in order to benefit team-mate Fernando Alonso.

Briatore denied the accusations as "outrageous lies" and threatened with legal action, a threat that materialised on Friday, when Renault announced it had begun criminal proceedings against Piquet and his father.

"The FIA has announced that it is to hold an extraordinary meeting of the World Motor Sport Council ('WMSC') on 21 September 2009," said Renault in a statement.

"The ING Renault F1 Team is to attend that meeting and answer allegations that members of the team conspired with Nelson Piquet Jnr to cause a deliberate accident at the 2008 Singapore GP, so that Fernando Alonso might benefit from the resulting safety car.

"The ING Renault F1 Team had not commented publicly during the FIA's initial investigation into this matter.

"However, today the ING Renault F1 Team and its Managing Director Flavio Briatore personally, wish to state that they have commenced criminal proceedings against Nelson Piquet Junior and Nelson Piquet Senior in France concerning the making of false allegations and a related attempt to blackmail the team into allowing Mr Piquet Jnr to drive for the remainder of the 2009 season.

"The matter will also be referred to the Police in the UK."