“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive.” Has Sir Walter Scott’s immortal line ever had greater application in sport than in Formula One this week? The great F1 espionage affair embraced a third team Friday, when Honda joined Ferrari and McLaren as unwitting parties in an extraordinary turn of events.

The passing of classified technical information, allegedly by Ferrari’s Nigel Stepney, to a high-ranking employee at McLaren, believed to be chief designer Mike Coghlan, resulted in huge discomfort for the British team. The inference that McLaren may have benefited from a sinister information trail linked to their fiercest rivals, Ferrari, hurt team principal Ron Dennis and his team beyond imagination.

Imagine his joy then, when he learned that the collusion between Stepney and a McLaren employee, the identity of whom the company has still to acknowledge formally, was not a clandestine attempt to import critical data from Ferrari, but to pool information and offer that expertise to a third team.

It was not until the late afternoon Friday, when Dennis set a hare running by alluding to a third team’s involvement, that the picture began to change.

Within minutes Honda produced a statement that read: “Given the speculation surrounding the legal investigations at Ferrari and McLaren, the Honda Racing F1 Team would like to clarify that earlier this year Nigel Stepney, formerly of Scuderia Ferrari, requested a meeting with Nick Fry, chief executive officer of the Honda Racing F1 Team.

“Stepney subsequently met Fry in June and brought with him Coughlan of McLaren, with a view to investigating job opportunities within the Honda Racing F1 Team. Honda would like to stress that at no point during this meeting was any confidential information offered or received.