A _remarkable_ life _lived_ in _Technicolor

Niki Lauda obituary: 'A remarkable life lived in Technicolor'

Niki Lauda, who has died aged 70, was a three-time Formula 1 world champion, non-executive chairman of the world champion Mercedes team, and one of the biggest names in motorsport.

He was also a pilot and successful businessman, who set up two airlines and continued to occasionally captain their planes into his late 60s.

But he will be remembered most for the remarkable bravery and resilience he showed in recovering from a fiery crash at the 1976 German Grand Prix at the fearsome Nurburgring.

Lauda - leading the World Championship, having won his first title a year earlier - suffered third-degree burns to his head and face that left him scarred for life, inhaled toxic gases that damaged his lungs, and received the last rites in hospital.

Yet he returned to racing just 40 days later - finishing fourth in the Italian Grand Prix. By the end of the race, his unhealed wounds had soaked his fireproof balaclava in blood. When he tried to remove the balaclava, he found it was stuck to his bandages, and had to resort to ripping it off in one go.

It was one of the bravest acts in the history of sport.

At the time, Lauda played down his condition. Later, in his disarmingly frank autobiography, he admitted he had been so scared he could hardly drive.

"I said then and later that I had conquered my fear quickly and cleanly," Lauda wrote in To Hell And Back. "That was a lie. But it would have been foolish to play into the hands of my rivals by confirming my weakness. At Monza, I was rigid with fear."

Lauda drove that weekend because he felt it was the "best thing" for his physical and mental wellbeing. "Lying in bed ruminating about the 'Ring would have finished me," he said.