Sainz claims title after Peugeots are disqualified

Carlos Sainz's incredible win in the Rally of Argentina put him alongside the Finn Tommi Makinen as the most successful driver in world rallying. Sainz became the third declared winner of the rally in eight hours late on Sunday after the Peugeot pair, Marcus Gronholm of Finland, and the world champion, Richard Burns of Britain, were excluded from the event for breaches of rules and regulations.

The victory is the 24th of Sainz's career and puts him level with the Subaru driver Makinen with the most victories in the history of the World Rally Championship.

"It amazing, but rallying is a strange sport sometimes," said Sainz yesterday. The Ford driver had not won for more than a year and a half, with his last victory coming in the Cyprus Rally in September 2000.

Sainz is now joint third in the championship standings with Burns. The series leader, Gronholm, and the third Peugeot driver Gilles Panizzi, of France, are ahead of them.

Peugeot, who had led the manufacturers' championship by 41 points before the event, stormed to a dominant one-two before both Gronholm and Burns were disqualified. The former champion Gronholm led home Burns by 1min 17.1sec following the spectacular retirement of Makinen on the penultimate stage.

Then Gronholm was found to be in breach of servicing rules after receiving assistance to start his car and Burns was promoted to winner. But six hours later Burns was excluded after scrutineers deemed that the flywheel on his Peugeot was 20 grams too light.

That handed victory to Sainz, with Subaru's Petter Solberg, of Norway, and the Briton Colin McRae, of Ford, second and third respectively. Peugeot decided not to appeal against either decision.