The longest waits to become world champion – DirtFish

There’s some pleasing symmetry in the start of Richard Burns’ journey in the WRC, and the day he became England’s first drivers’ world champion. Eleven years, to the precise date, since his first start, he clinched the title for Subaru.

That 11-year wait undersells Burns’ rise to the top though, as between 1990 and 1993 he only ever made one WRC start each year, at home on the RAC, as part of a domestic program building up to the world stage.

The first year Burns started with any kind of chance of the championship was 1998, his first full season at Mitsubishi alongside eventual world champion Tommi Mäkinen. Burns won two events on his way to sixth in the standings.

Moving to Subaru for 1999, however, was when Burns emerged as a real contender, as he scooped two runner-up finishes behind Mäkinen and then Marcus Grönholm. He then went one better in 2001 after a classic season where multiple drivers were in the running, but Burns eventually prospered.

4 Timo Salonen