Quebec F1 race legend’s statue stolen [Video]

A small Quebec town northeast of Montreal is racing to find a stolen bronze statue of revered Formula One driver Gilles Villeneuve, as locals fear it will get melted down for cash.

Each year, tourists and racing enthusiasts travel to Berthierville, Que., a town of fewer than 5,000 people, to visit the Gilles Villeneuve Museum — located on a street also named after the famous driver — and pose for a photo with the five-foot-three-inch tall statue that stood atop a podium.

But now the podium is empty, except for a pair of bronze feet.

“There was nothing left but Gilles’ bronze boots cut at the ankles,” Alain Bellehumeur, general manager of the Gilles Villeneuve Museum, said in an interview Friday. 

He thinks the statue was sawed off between Wednesday night and Thursday, adding that it would have taken at least two people and a truck to remove the statue …