Formula 1 star Lewis Hamilton and former F3 Euroseries team-mate Adrian Sutil came close to becoming the victims of a blackmail plot, it has been revealed.

An unemployed man has been arrested in Germany for having allegedly tried to sell a computer hard drive that used to belong to Sutil to German motorsport magazine Bild Motorsport for 10,000 euros (£8,000).

The man - known only as 'Dieter' - now faces charges of attempted blackmail and possession of stolen data, and if found guilty could face a maximum penalty of five years' imprisonment.

The disk - which had not been wiped properly - contained personal information, details of Sutil's financial records, Swiss bank account transactions, photographs and private e-mail correspondence between Force India ace Sutil and close friend Hamilton.

Sutil's father Jorge had 'disposed of the computer some time ago' according to The Register website, making it unclear just how it came to being in Dieter's possession.

When Dieter arrived for a meeting with the editor of Bild Motorsport to discuss the proposed sale at an autobahn service station near Munich, he was instead met by undercover police conducting a sting operation, having been tipped off in advance.

Detectives are now questioning Dieter over the incident.

Security experts Sophos have warned about identity thieves who wait around junkyards in a bid to pick up old computers within minutes of them having been dropped off, before going on to employ data recovery tools to try and extract financial records, passwords and other information useful for stealing identities.

Crash.net / Eurosport