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Eurosport-Yahoo! readers have voted Stirling Moss as the best driver never to win the Formula One World Championship, but it was a close call.

Of the nearly 6,000 votes that were cast, 29 per cent were for Moss, who won 16 grands prix and finished runner-up four times in succession between 1955 and 1958.

Right behind the Englishman was former Ferrari star Rubens Barrichello (28 per cent), who now turns out for Honda.

The Brazilian finished fourth in the 2000 title race, third in 2001 and runner-up in both 2002 and 2004.

With only 40 votes separating the top two, the driver in third place, Gilles Villeneuve (26 per cent), was another 100 back - indicating just how close the competition proved.

The Canadian, whose best finish in the championship was runner-up to Jody Scheckter in 1979, was killed in a crash during qualifying for the Belgian Grand Prix in 1982.

Outside the top three it was slim pickings, with Gerhard Berger (eight per cent), Ronnie Peterson (four per cent) and Jacky Ickx (three per cent) managing a few hundred apiece, while Carlos Reutemann and Chris Amon (one per cent apiece) could not break the 100 barrier.

A selection of our reader responses (scroll down for results):

Risker: Gilles Villeneuve... along with Stirling Moss. Both were great drivers but Gilles was great for his desire to please the fans by overtaking. His crash was tragic. I seem to recall as a boy that he had an argument with his team-mate and that he wanted to beat him in his final lap of qually... his last one too.

Jason-lee: Got to be Sir Stirling Moss - perhaps if he hadn't been such a gentleman he'd have cliched it a good many times.

bohnet21: Anyone who ever saw Stirling Moss drive has to know that he was the very best.

thewildcard44: Gilles Villeneuve! Fastest man in F1! Watkins Glen (1979); it was pouring with torrential rain. Only a handful of drivers went out. Scheckter, who went on to become world champion that year, went out and set a lap which he thought was solid; a great lap despite conditions. Villeneuve went out and beat Scheckter's time by nine whole seconds!! Scheckter couldn't believe it. He asked his mechanic: "He's mad. How did he do that?" The mechanic said: "Gilles is just on a different plane to us!!"

Mr Burns: It's got to be Ronnie Peterson - he was number two driver at Lotus in name only: he could have whipped Mario Andretti's ass any time but for team orders!

Ted: In my opinion they all deserved at least one WC, but a series of misfortunes or tragedies have made it unreachable. They all deserve credit for making this sport more fun to watch. I would also include here Peter Collins, Wolfgang von Trips and Francois Cevert.

Scottish C: I'd have included David Coulthard in that list. Without a doubt the best team-mate you could have, just ask Mika Hakkinen - he owes at least one if not both his titles to DC's help. David Coulthard had the misfortune to race in an era when Michael Schumacher dominated, otherwise he would have been a world champion.

MC shambus: Juan Pablo Montoya was faster than DC or Rubens. I've only been watching since the late nineties but JPM has got to be in the discussion. The only thing the man lacked was the ability to be honest with himself about his weakness. If he could have kept a cooler head he could have won it with Williams.

Full results:

5944 votes (as of 09:30, Monday November 17)

Stirling Moss - 29% (1,698 votes)

Rubens Barrichello - 28% (1659)

Gilles Villeneuve - 26% (1550)

Gerhard Berger - 8% (470)

Ronnie Peterson - 4% (252)

Jacky Ickx - 3% (203)

Carlos Reutemann - 1% (67)

Chris Amon - 1% (45)

Eurosport