Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, will not stand for election again. It is official. How do we know that? Because his old friend, Bernie Ecclestone, the Formula One promoter, is absolutely sure of it.

Speaking to The Times about motor racing for the first time since giving an interview to the newspaper last weekend in which he praised Adolf Hitler — something he bitterly regrets — Ecclestone said at the Nürburgring on Friday that he had not even a scintilla of doubt that Mosley will honour an agreement to stand down in October.

Ecclestone, the Formula One commercial rights-holder, has chosen to keep a lower profile than normal during his visit to Nürburg for Sunday’s German Grand Prix and he was determined not to comment further on the Hitler issue, after making a series of apologies to Jewish groups and others. The scandal has been fighting for airtime with renewed talk from teams of a possible breakaway series if Mosley tries to hang on.

Ecclestone offered this reassurance to those who fear that Mosley could yet split Formula One by trying to stay in office for a fifth term as president of the world governing body. “I have no doubt in my mind, as long as I’ve known Max, he’s always done what he said he would do,” Ecclestone said in an upstairs office in one of his motorhomes.

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“He’s an honourable person. I’ve always said Max can have a cheque signed by me, without any name or amount on it, because he’s a trustworthy guy. So I have no doubt that he will honour all the things he’s ever said he will do.”

In this case, however, Mosley agreed with the leaders of the teams threatening a breakaway championship that he would step down in October, then reacted to what he saw as subsequent unfair briefing against him in the press by saying that he would keep his options open. He has recently been talking of the sudden pressure on him by ordinary members of the FIA to stand again.

Ecclestone, though, is sure we can relax. “He said his options are open but he didn’t say what they were going to be, did he?” he said. And he offered an explanation for Mosley’s latest apparent attack of indecision about his future. “He was a bit upset after agreements had been made [with Luca Di Montezemolo, the president of Ferrari] to be quiet and not throw stones at each other, and then remarks were made which upset him,” he said.

Ecclestone spoke as Ari Vatanen, the Finnish former world rally champion, said that he will run as a candidate for the FIA presidency in response to requests that he had received from FIA clubs. “The time has come for a change,” Vatanen said. “My main focus is to reconcile views within the FIA and bring transparency to its stakeholders. The duty of the president is to defend a billion automobilists and the great sport of ours.”

Should Mosley stand aside, Vatanen could find himself running against Jean Todt, the former team principal of Ferrari, who is widely viewed as Mosley’s favoured candidate to succeed him.

As much as he is confident on Mosley’s motives, Ecclestone was also pretty certain that the breakaway will not happen. “There are probably a couple of people in all the teams who would like to see it happen,” he said. “But, no, I don’t think it will happen.

“I think people realise that the Formula One World Championship has been going for 60 years, it is well established, we’ve got the best circuits in the world and I don’t think they’ve even thought through really how there could be a breakaway. And if there is, what would our company do?”

The final point was in reference to CVC Capital Partners, which employs Ecclestone to run Formula One and which owns 68 per cent of the sport. Asked to elaborate, he would add only: “Let’s hope we don’t have to.”

On the track, Lewis Hamilton took advantage of changeable weather to set a surprise fastest time in the second session of practice in an updated McLaren Mercedes, but the battle for pole in qualifying today looks to be between Sebastian Vettel, in the Red Bull, who was second-fastest in the afternoon, and the championship leader, Jenson Button, of Brawn GP, who was third.