Rubens Barrichello, who holds the record for having started the most world championship Grands' Prix (322), has revealed that a powerful headache led to the discovery of a benign tumour on his neck.

Signs that something was wrong first emerged in February when the Brazilian, whose F1 career spanned 19 seasons with the likes of Ferrari, Jordan, Stewart, Honda and Brawn, suffered a severe headache.

"I was at home having a shower and suddenly I felt a pain in my head," he told Brazil's Conversa com Bial, according to Motorsport.com.

"From zero to ten I'd say it was an eight or nine headache," he admitted, "so strong!

"I lay on the floor, I didn't want to wake anybody up. But it was hurting so badly. "I walked back into my bedroom and woke up Silvana. I started feeling sick and realized this was a hospital situation."

Released from hospital a few days later, it was during the subsequent check-ups that the tumour was discovered.

"After everything that happened, I had a bunch of check-ups to find out more about my health conditions and they found a small tumour on my neck, which they removed after a race I did in Interlagos. I had it removed because, even though it was a benign tumour, it would've grown and I don't want to have that kind of discomfort in the car.

"A friend of ours who's a doctor saw that I was in bad shape and I'm very lucky," he continued. "The vein that opened due to a bad formation, regenerated itself with its own blood in two hours. When I arrived at the hospital, they put in a canular and saw the vein had closed itself. When I left the hospital, they told me only 14 per cent of people get out of this situation like I did. Many endure serious after affects or die."