Fernando Alonso, the reigning world champion, has been fully implicated in the FIA’s findings behind the unprecedented sanctions handed out to McLaren over the Ferrari spy scandal.

McLaren were stripped of all their constructors’ points for this season and handed a record £50 million fine and although neither Alonso or Lewis Hamilton, his McLaren team-mate who leads the world drivers' championship, were punished at the hearing of the World Motor Sport Council (WMSC), it appears that the Spaniard was in unauthorised possession of confidential technical information belonging to Ferrari.

In their 15-page judgment released today, the FIA have published details of emails exchanged between Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa regarding the Ferrari secrets, which were initially received by McLaren's chief designer, Mike Coughlan, who has been suspended, from the former Ferrari chief mechanic, Nigel Stepney.

“The emails show unequivocally that both Mr Alonso and Mr de la Rosa received confidential Ferrari information via [Mike] Coughlan," the statement said.

“Both drivers knew that this information was confidential Ferrari information and that both knew that the information was being received by Coughlan from [Nigel] Stepney.”

Coughlan was suspended from his position as McLaren chief designer on July 3, the same day Ferrari sacked Stepney as their head of performance development.

It is understood Stepney forwarded a 780-page technical dossier to Coughlan, an accusation the former continues to deny.

But one email exchange between De La Rosa and Alonso dated March 25, 2007, is particularly damning. It initially relates to the weight distribution of Ferrari’s cars as set up for the Australian Grand Prix on March 18.

De La Rosa then concludes: “All the information from Ferrari is very reliable. It comes from Nigel Stepney, their former chief mechanic - I don’t know what post he holds now.

“He’s the same person who told us in Australia that Kimi [Raikkonen] was stopping on lap 18. He’s very friendly with Mike Coughlan, our chief designer, and he told him that.”

On the eve of testing the McLaren car in a simulator, De la Rosa wrote an e-mail to Coughlan on March 21 to provide information about the red Ferrari setup, according to another section of the FIA ruling.

It said: “Hi Mike, do you know the Red Car’s Weight Distribution? It would be important for us to know so that we could try it in the simulator. Thanks in advance, Pedro.”

The position of Alonso within the McLaren team appears increasingly difficult to sustain, though his mind was firmly fixed on the track today as he set the fastest time in Friday qualifying ahead of Hamilton.

There is intense speculation about a meeting between Alonso and Ron Dennis, the McLaren principal, at the Hungarian Grand Prix, when it is thought the subject of emails containing confidential information pertaining to Ferrari was discussed.

There are reports that Dennis subsequently made the decision to inform the FIA about the emails, which form the basis of the FIA's findings against McLaren.