Richard Burns praised his Banbury team after extending his world championship lead with victory in the Rally of Argentina.

The Oxfordshire Subaru driver finished ahead of Finnish pair Marcus Gronholm, in a Peugeot and Mitsubishi's reigning world champion Tommi Makinen.

"All of the team deserve this they've worked really hard over the last few days. But without a doubt this has been the toughest event of the year for me as well," he said.

Burns, also victorious in Kenya and Portugal, had a difficult first day with technical problems with his engine, but 13 victories in 21 special stages indicated how much he dominated this event. His victory was not totally without incident, notably when he hit a rock on the 20th special stage and damaged his car in a stage already shortened by five kilometres for safety reasons.

"I badly judged a bend because of the fog and I went about four or five metres off the track. I was lucky," admitted Burns.

He sealed victory on the Condor Copina peak in the Andes foothills which, at 7,300ft, is the highest peak in the World Championship calendar.

That final stage saw a steep slope of 800m in just 17 kilometres, with muddy conditions and boulders adding further complications.

Burns admitted that it was an unusual experience competing at such altitude, saying: "You could hardly see 50m ahead." It was a bad event for the Ford Focus team with their two former world champions being forced to retire early.

Spaniard Carlos Sainz bowed out after going off the road on the 11th special stage, while Scotland's Colin McRae came a cropper on the 17th.