The legal dispute between the world champion Richard Burns and his team is being resolved out of court and Burns will drive for Peugeot rather than Subaru next season, just as he wished.
None of the parties was prepared to comment last night and details of the settlement are expected to remain secret. But the fact that an agreement has been reached before this morning's high court hearing is likely to be perceived as a victory for Burns.
Subaru Tecnica International, the high-performance arm of the Japanese company, had sought an injunction to prevent Burns moving to Peugeot.
Although it was accepted in court that Burns could not be compelled to remain with the team for a fourth season, he was presented with a choice of changing his mind, spending a year on "garden leave," or paying as much as £6.9m to terminate his Subaru contract.
Subaru had claimed that Burns was bound not simply by an extra year added to the contract 12 months ago, but a clause obliging him to remain, because he had become world champion. They wanted damages if he left, claiming that they would lose much of the commercial value of an annual investment of £34m in the world championship.
Burns' lawyers claimed that the signing of the Finnish four-times world champion Tommi Makinen permitted their client to go, because Makinen was a suitable replacement. They argued that the clause requiring Burns to remain because of becoming world champion was invalid, because it amounted to a restraint of trade.
A Subaru press release of October 15, in which Makinen was described as "the perfect No1," was discussed at some length.
