RICHARD BURNS, the 2001 world rally champion, died peacefully last night after a long illness. Just 35, Burns was one of the most gifted drivers of his generation and a combative rival to Colin McRae, Britain’s only other rallying world champion. His crowning glory came at the Rally of Great Britain when he became world champion on home turf at an event he had followed as a child.

Unfortunately, the British round of the World Championship was to become part of his story in a way that his fans will not have wanted. On his way to the event in 2002, he passed out at the wheel of his car and was saved only by the quick thinking of Markko Märtin, a rival at the Ford team but a great friend, who wrenched the steering wheel from his grasp and guided their vehicle to safety. Burns was later diagnosed with a brain disease that did not respond to treatment.

The man from Oxford leaves rallying in a bleak year after Michael Park, Märtin’s co-driver and one of the British ratpack of rallying that included Burns, was killed in September. Again, the Rally GB was at the centre of the sad events when Märtin’s car hit a tree in the Welsh forests and Park was killed outright.