(Reuters) -Robert Kubica said his triumph at the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday, 14 years after a near-fatal rally crash that partially severed his right forearm, should erase any doubts about his capacity to compete in motor racing.
The 40-year-old former Formula One driver became the first Polish overall winner of the French endurance race in a car shared with Yifei Ye and Phil Hanson.
"I don't think my limitations are limiting behind the wheel. I think if someone had doubts in the past I showed those doubts should not be in place," he told the BBC.
Kubica, the first Polish Formula One driver, won the Canadian Grand Prix and finished fourth overall in 2008. He was linked with a move to Ferrari before the crash sidelined him for nearly a year.
He returned to motor racing in 2012, focusing mostly on endurance races, before making a return to Formula One in 2019.
"There was some very extreme quotes of some people which hurt me because I am the first one who would never like to be back just for marketing or a being a PR muppet," Kubica said.
"People pointing the finger, saying maybe it wasn't safe, and having doubts. They are not doing it anymore."
(Reporting by Chiranjit Ojha in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
