Motorsport world pays tribute to champion McRae

The world of motorsport was mourning the death of former world rally champion Colin McRae yesterday after he was killed in a helicopter crash on Saturday.

The 39-year-old died along with his five-year-old son Johnny when the helicopter he was flying in crashed into a forest near his home in Lanark, Scotland.

A six-year-old friend of McRae's son and another man aged 37 were also killed, police confirmed.

"He was a great character outside the car and a tremendous driver inside the car," his former co-driver Nicky Grist told the BBC. "He had so much commitment and oozed talent."

Grist was McRae's co-driver when he became the first British world rally champion in 1995 while driving for the Subaru team. McRae was also runner-up in a Subaru in 1996 and 1997 and narrowly missed the title for Ford in 2001. He won 25 times in the World Rally Championship from 146 starts and picked up 477 individual stage victories.

"I was privileged to have Colin in our team driving for Ford at a time when he was at the peak of his powers," Ford's Rally Team director Malcolm Wilson said in a statement.

David Richards, who was in charge of the Subaru rally team when McRae won the title in 1995, said McRae was a "legend" of the sport. "He was competitive and extreme in everything he did but also so much fun," he told reporters at the weekend.

Richards himself had a narrow escape on Sunday when the helicopter he and his wife were travelling in from the Belgium Grand Prix crash-landed near London.

F1 driver David Coulthard said McRae was "blindingly quick" in a car while another Scottish motor racing great, Jackie Stewart, said: "It's a sad loss for Scotland, a real hero and an immensely popular friend."

Italian MotoGP rider Valentino Rossi, winner in Portugal on Sunday, took time out to remember McRae. "He was always my favourite driver, I followed him a lot and went to see him in Monte Carlo and San Remo... everyone is very sad," Rossi said.