Racing legend Sir Stirling Moss dies aged 90

The world of motorsport is in mourning following the death of one of its greatest icons, Sir Stirling Moss, at the age of 90.

His wife Lady Moss confirmed that she was at his bedside as he died – she had been nursing him through a long-term illness at their Mayfair House.

A chest infection which he caught in Singapore just before Christmas in 2016 was the cause of his passing.

Moss is widely regarded as the greatest all-round racing driver – he won 16 races in Formula 1, and although he never won the World Championship, across his full racing career he won 212 of the 529 races he entered from 1948 to 1962.

His love for racing British machinery and playing by the rules was arguably the only reason why he never lifted Formula 1’s biggest prize.

“Better to lose honourably in a British car than win in a foreign one,” were his famous words.

From 1955 and 1958 Moss finished runner-up in the Championship four times in a row – his 1961 victory at the Monaco Grand Prix for Lotus was one of his greatest, seeing off the more powerful Ferraris to lead Richie Ginther over the line by 3.6 seconds.

Moss retired from racing in 1962. He crashed his Lotus heavily during the Glover Trophy at Goodwood on Monday April 23.

The accident left him in a coma for a month, and for six months the left side of his body was partially paralysed.

While he would recover, Moss decided to retire from professional racing after a private test session in a Lotus 19 the following year.

He lapped a few tenths of a second slower than before, leading him to say that he had not regained his previously instinctive command of the car.

Speaking to the Daily Mail about his passing, Lady Moss said: “He died as he lived, looking wonderful.

“He simply tired in the end and he just closed his beautiful eyes and that was that.”

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