So, the curtain is finally about to come down on one of the most colourful and controversial sporting careers of recent times. The immediate cause of Max Mosley’s announcement that he would not seek re-election as President of the FIA in October was to head off the threat of a breakaway by eight rebel teams, but he insists that he had taken the decision some time before.

“I told most of the senior staff here last year that I planned not to seek re-election, but I did not want that decision to leak out as it would have undermined my authority,” Mr Mosley told The Times yesterday.

In his version, yeserday’s drama in Paris was less a coup and more a poker game in which he played the killer hand. “When the dispute began to get increasingly bitter, I used the possibility of re-election as a bargaining chip to bring the teams into line. I am happy that we have now reached a compromise that, if the teams keep their word, should safeguard the future of the sport.”

Mr Mosley’s decision to step down marks the culmination of a turbulent and traumatic 15 months. It all kicked off in March last year when the News of the World printed explosive revelations about his private life including details of a sado-masochistic orgy that took place in a Chelsea basement apartment. The scandal led to calls for him to resign as head of the FIA, but he managed to win a no confidence vote last summer before vanquishing the News of the World in a privacy case in the High Court.

Then came personal tragedy. On May 7 Mr Mosley’s son Alexander, 39, who suffered from depression, was found dead at his home in West London from a drug overdose.

“It has been a truly horrible time coming to terms with what happened to Alexander,” Mr Mosley said. “Although my decision to step down from the FIA predated Alexander’s death, I think it made it even more obvious that it was time to spend more time with my family. I currently spend most of my life in Monaco and my wife lives in Chelsea. I now look forward to getting a better balance in my family life.”

Mr Mosely was, for the most part, poised and calm as he talked through the mechanics of yesterday’s decision. But as the conversation progressed into more personal territory it was possible to hear the occasional tremor in his voice.

There is little doubt in my mind that Mr Mosley, an archetype of English emotional reserve and restraint, has been deeply affected by the trials ind tribulations of recent months and, despite his undoubted thirst for power, will welcome a period in quieter waters.

What next for him? “I am really looking forward to reading some books I have had on my shelf for ages but have not yet had a chance to get stuck into,” he said.

“I want to read [Nassim Nicholas] Taleb’s book The Black Swan and Robert Skidelsky’s biography of Keynes. I will also start turning my mind to my own memoirs, which will have plenty of very funny and explosive stories in it.”

But whatever Mr Mosley writes and accomplishes hereafter, he is likely always to be remembered for those extraordinary headlines and how he coped with the aftermath. Many sought to victimise him for private actions that took place behind closed doors with consenting adults. By taking the courageous decision to fight his corner, he not only won widespread admiration, even from some of his critics, but ultimately secured a deeply significant victory for the forces of progress and tolerance.

As I wrote at the time: condemning a man who is doing a good job because you disapprove of what he gets up to in the privacy of his own dungeon is the first step on the road to serfdom.