carl

Indeed. If he had won by the same tactics, I doubt he would have been so vocal. You never hear the winner at Wimbledon complaining about the state of the court...

Neil Micklethwaite

Colin McRae - Gracious in defeat, hmmm must have missed that one.

Alex ferguson - We don't need another moaning Scot

Agree the only way is to 'Put Up or Shut Up' and I'm sure we'll see in Greece.

jjk

Maxwell; youre not connected to Mark Straker who went to Pierrepont school are you???

TRIGGER

McRae may not be the most gracious, but he admits his mistakes when he crashes out and is honest when fairly beaten.

Burns needs always to blame others.

slimshady

neil ,
"We don't need another moaning scot," - your point is neil ?

Geezer

People say that great sports men are measured not by how the way they win, how they lose.

Once again, Mr Burns has shown that he is not the most gracious of people in defeat. His comments about Ford and McRae on saturday evening leave a bad taste in the mouth. He accuses them of engineering a result, and that he would end up sweeping the road for everyone else. Well, unlucky. It's about winning as far as Ford is concerned, so they can sell cars. If McRae feels he has more chance of delivering a victory to his employers by not being first on the road on the final day, then as long as he doesn't break the rules he is perfectly entitled to.

It is especially hypocritical as he has himself done the very same thing in the past to get good road position, and looking at the stage times from saturday, it seemed fairly obvious that he himself had slowed down considerably to achieve the same effect!

The fact that he was running ahead of McRae and so gave Ford the advantage in knowing exactly how much McRae had to slow by is coincidental.

Richard Burns is undoubtedly a driver of high calibre. He is amongst the three or four top rally drivers in the world at present and commands respect from his peers and is probably a role model for young and aspiring drivers.

He doesn't have to like what Ford did, but in a sport where results are often manufactured, he should show some of the sportsmanship to which he refers when making accusations.

Geezer

Maxwell Straker

I agree Geezer, he is in very great danger of turning into Alex Ferguson

He would attract a great many more admirers if we were to be magnanimous in defeat as well as victory. He has obviously driven this event extremely well in a car that is still proving itself this year, he was beaten more by superior tactics rather than outright speed. His reaction should be to talk up his own drive and to congratulate the winner. If privately he feels done out then fine, use that aggression in the next WRC round........in short...grow up!!

JayDee

"Gracious in defeat..."

Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser...

Can't remember who said that but its true

Why do we expect people to LIKE losing?

JD

Neil Micklethwaite

Slimshady - My Point is Colin McRae

Maxwell Straker

jjk,

I am not connected (in anyway )to Mark, as far as I know. Unless, ofcourse, his name was made up as well

Darren Thompson

Richard Burns is no inspiration to young drivers trust me on that one. A friend of mine last year won his class the junior championship and F2 and all Richard could say was he had no competition. when introduced to Colin ( By far the better driver of the two.) he was full of praise.

Richard please we know how good you are, stop moaning and prove them all wrong and don't forget who we are and were you started.

Darren.

blubs

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:<HR>Originally posted by JayDee:
<B>"Gracious in defeat..."

Show me a good loser and I'll show you a loser...

Can't remember who said that but its true

Why do we expect people to LIKE losing?

JD[/quote]

We don't expect them to like it, just be honest and gracious regarding the reasons why they lost.

I agree with most on here but I do have some sympathy for Richard Burns.

Had he already been World Champion (like McRae), I'm sure he would find it easier to be gracious as he would have much less to prove.

Not that I'm condoning the moaning (hey, it rhymes!), but everyone likes McRae because he is is a 'hero' behind the wheel, in the same way that everyone liked Ari Vatenen rather than Hannu Mikkola etc.

I think we should all be proud of the fact that two British drivers have taken 1st and 2nd position on the last two world championship events......................but McRae did win both

blubs