Sir Stirling Moss, British motor racing legend, dies aged 90

Sir Stirling Moss has passed away at the age of 90.

The British motor racing legend, widely recognised as one the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all-time despite never winning a championship, died in the early hours of Easter Sunday after a long battle with illness.

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His wife Lady Moss confirmed the news and said he died peacefully at his London home.

"It was one lap too many," she said. "He just closed his eyes."

Though Moss famously never won the F1 title, he finished runner-up four times and came third three times in a career during which he won 16 Grands Prix.

His sportsmanship cost him the title in 1958 when he defended the actions of rival Mike Hawthorn following a spin at the Portuguese GP, sparing Hawthorn a six-point penalty. Hawthorn went on to beat Moss to the title by a single point.

Moss' first Grand Prix victory came in 1955 at Aintree as he became the first British driver to win the British event.

In an age when racing drivers competed in several different disciplines alongside Formula 1, Moss won a total of 212 of the 529 races he entered, and was particularly regarded as a superb rally driver.

Moss' racing career was ultimately ended after a crash at Goodwood in 1962, which left him in a coma for a month and partially paralysed for six months.

Moss still drove at legends events until the age of 81, and retired from public life in 2018.

His passing is believed to be the result of a chest infection he caught in Singapore in 2016.

'An icon of his sport'

Sky Sports Formula 1 reporter Craig Slater remembers Sir Stirling Moss...

"Like many of the surviving heroes of Formula 1, Sir Stirling carried an aura about him.

"It was so powerful that even the modern day greats like Sebastian Vettel and Lewis Hamilton listened carefully and politely whenever they were in his company.

"Hamilton, in particular, seemed fascinated by him. Plenty of commentators have compared the two drivers.

"There was a smoothness to Moss but it was allied to his appreciation and understanding that facing risk was where races were won and lost.

"Like most of the great sportsmen and women you deal with in journalism, he was polite, he made the most of the time you had with him and he liked to be challenged.

"Moss much preferred talking about the here and now, the battles of Hamilton against Vettel and Max Verstappen than he did reminiscing about his own triumphs.

"It was typical of the man who was an icon of his sport."

'A mighty racer and gentleman': Tributes to Moss