Ryan fired by McLaren

McLaren have sacked their sporting director Dave Ryan for his part in the Australian Grand Prix "lying" scandal. The F1 team had earlier suspended Ryan after their world champion Lewis Hamilton had been disqualified from the race. Hamilton claimed Ryan has told him to "withhold information" from race stewards.

"McLaren and former sporting director, Dave Ryan, have formally parted company," the F1 team said in a statement. "As a result, he is no longer an employee of any of the constituent companies of the McLaren Group." The Woking-based team have been ordered to appear before an extraordinary meeting of the FIA's World Motor Sport Council (WMSC) in Paris on April 29. Hamilton had been awarded third in Melbourne - after stewards had handed Totota's Jarno Trulli a 25-second penalty for passing the world champion behind a safety car - before he was stripped of his points after he and Ryan were adjudged to have given stewards "deliberately misleading" evidence in the post-race hearing.

Hamilton had told stewards he had not been told to allow Trulli to pass him when the opposite was true, a fact borne out by team radio transmissions. Ryan, a McLaren employee for 35 years, was the team member who attended a stewards' hearing - along with Hamilton - following the Melbourne race, and was subsequently found to have lied in a bid to see the Briton claim third. In the build up to the Malaysia Grand Prix at the weekend, the FIA came to hear of an interview Hamilton gave immediately after the Australian race.

Hamilton confirmed the team instructed him to allow Trulli to pass - contrary to comments made by Ryan and Hamilton at the original hearing - and it is at that stage the stewards looked into the radio transmissions between Hamilton and the pit wall. It became clear Ryan and Hamilton lied, although the latter was under orders from the former, who was soon suspended by team boss Martin Whitmarsh. Hamilton later issued a sincere apology for his actions, laying the blame firmly at Ryan's door, and he is now in the clear as far as the FIA are concerned.

The WMSC will now focus on taking the team to task, with a fine the logical outcome. It is the third time McLaren have been hauled before the WMSC in less than two years, with the last hearing resulting in the team being handed a sporting record £49.2million (Dh266m) fine following the "spy-gate" furore. * With agencies