RICHARD MEADEN

Robert Kubica's extraordinary Le Mans-winning drive was an inspiration, says Meaden

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THE ARMCO CAME STRAIGHT THROUGH THE car. Grotesquely skewered from nose to tailgate, Robert Kubica's Skoda Fabia rally car was lanced after the Lotus-Renault F1 driver crashed during the first stage of the Ronde di Andora rally.

He was there through pure passion for driving. No F1 driver needs to compete elsewhere, least of all in a provincial rally. But much like MotoGP riders throw their legs over dirt bikes in the off-season to hone their skills, so Kubica believed rallying would give him an edge in tricky conditions.

In the 14 years since that fateful crash, Kubica has confessed to having last-minute doubts about entering the rally. No wonder given he had a final season with Lotus to focus on, and – unbeknown to everyone at the time – a Ferrari contract in his pocket for the 2012 season. Still his love of driving and, one suspects, a sense of not wanting to let people down meant he would be there to start the rally.

It took the rescue crew more than an hour to extricate Kubica from the car. The penetrating length of barrier passed almost exactly between him and his co-driver, who was uninjured in the crash. Such are the margins that can separate life and (near) death in motorsport. As Kubica would later say: '15 centimetres to the right and we would both have been fine, 10 centimetres to the left and I wouldn't be here.'