Ecclestone hits back at CVC's Sorrell

In an interview with the BBC, Ecclestone, who is CVC's chief executive, said that Sorrell was in no position to attack him because he is not directly involved with F1.

Sorrell, a non-executive director of CVC, had earlier criticised Ecclestone for saying that Briatore's indefinite ban from FIA championships was too strong, as well as his comments earlier in the year about Hitler.

"The comments I made about Hitler were comments that were taken completely out [of context]," Ecclestone told the BBC. "I apologise because they were taken completely wrong. As far as cheating I haven't made any comments.

"Everybody is entitled to their own opinion and why should his be more important than mine? He's not involved in the sport so it's difficult to know why. He doesn't know, he doesn't come to races, he doesn't know the people that are involved."

Ecclestone's comments came in response to quotes from Sorrell run in British Newspaper the Daily Mail today, accusing Ecclestone of saying that cheating is acceptable.

"First, we had Hitler did good, now we have cheating is acceptable," said Sorrell. "Where will it end? His latest comments are yet another example, I'm afraid, of Bernie being totally out of touch with reality."

Ecclestone re-iterated his belief that Briatore's ban was too harsh, but added that it was the right decision not to hit Renault itself with further punishments for the Singapore Grand Prix crash scandal.

"Giving somebody life - they don't even do that for murder," said Ecclestone of Briatore's indefinite ban.

"It would be nice to know exactly what crime Renault committed. Three people were involved, it was a conspiracy and if you look in the dictionary what a conspiracy is you will soon see what it is. And it wasn't Renault that was involved in the conspiracy."