Citroën’s Colin McRae believes that fellow Briton and Peugeot rival Richard Burns has blown his chance of becoming WRC champion this year, adding fuel to their fiery rivalry.
Citroën’s Colin McRae believes that fellow Briton and Peugeot rival Richard Burns has blown his chance of becoming WRC champion this year, adding fuel to their fiery rivalry.
McRae said that Burns had “lost it” and that his Peugeot 206 was no longer capable of challenging rally’s biggest prize.
Longtime series leader Burns has suffered a nightmare run of poor form and luck on the last two rallies in his Peugeot. In San Remo, he admitted to making too many mistakes to keep up with the leaders, while in Corsica last weekend he and co-driver Robert Reid suffered a severe bout of food poisoning, which spoiled their chances.
“I think Richard’s lost it,” McRae told Motorsport News. “He’s clearly not on the pace. Petter [Solberg], Carlos [Sainz] and Markko [Martin] are much quicker than anyone else at the moment and I don’t think the Peugeot is good on asphalt. I think it will struggle in Britain as well.”
Solberg’s sizzling win in Corsica last week put him on a level footing with Burns in the WRC standings and three points behind new leader Sainz of Citroën, McRae’s team-mate.
“I was hoping to be involved in the fight in Corsica,” said Burns. “I didn’t think I could match Markko and Sebastien [Loeb] but I thought we could be up there with the rest. We are struggling against the other cars – you can see we’re not doing well enough.”
And with such heated words before the start of the next stage at Catalunya in Spain, the drivers’ and cars’ performances alone will show the truth or otherwise of McRae’s words.