Illness forces Burns out
Britain's World Rally Championship contender Richards Burns is out of this weekend's season finale in Wales after being hospitalised on the eve of the event
Burns spent Sunday night in Newport hospital in South Wales after fainting at around 17:30 while travelling from London to Cardiff. This forced him to miss the beginning of the recce for Wales Rally GB today (Monday) so he will not be allowed to enter the event on safety grounds.
Doctors will give an update later today on their diagnosis and the seriousness of his state of health.
His co-driver Robert Reid said: "The doctors have basically told Richard not to do the rally. He's having more tests done today, but he's in good form considering the circumstances. Obviously he's hugely disappointed about the whole thing. I thought this year would have a sting in the tail, but I wasn't quite prepared for this."
Both Burns and Reid fell ill on the final day of Rally Catalunya last month, but it is not known whether this is related to Richard's hospitalisation.
Burns lies five points behind joint championship leaders Sebastien Loeb and Carlos Sainz going into this weekend's Wales Rally GB WRC finale. Only Subaru's Petter Solberg, who Burns will join as team-mate next year, can now overhaul the Citroen duo.
Peugeot Sport has claimed force majeure due to Burns' illness, and requested that its 2004 signings Freddy Loix and Sven Smeets be allowed to drive his car in Wales this weekend.
Stay tuned to autosport.com for more Wales Rally GB news as it happens.
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