World champion Richard Burns has been stripped of victory in the Rally of Argentina after his Peugeot failed a weight test.

The Englishman was handed victory when original winner arcus Gronholm was disqualified because of a technical infringement by his crew.

But now Burns has been eliminated from the final standings, meaning Ford's Carlos Sainz becomes the third winner of the race within eight hours.

Burns, who won the world title for Subaru last season, had been celebrating his first win for Peugeot when his car was found to be underweight at the final check-in.

Subaru's Petter Solberg now moves into second, with Scotsman Colin McRae third in his Ford Focus.

I didn't do anything wrong Marcus Gronholm

Burns had earlier talked about his first victory for Peugeot being tainted after Gronholm's disqualification, but it had left him just two points behind the championship-leading Finn.

"Obviously I'm delighted to take my first win for Peugeot but this isn't perhaps the way I would have liked to do it," Burns had said.

"Marcus drove exceptionally well and deserved to win this rally.

"Nevertheless it was another strong performance by the Peugeot team and I can hardly believe we were so close to a fifth consecutive 1-2 result."

Gronholm was disqualified after the stewards decided mechanics from the French team illegally helped push-start his Peugeot 206 outside the permitted zone when it failed to start on Sunday morning.

Gronholm initially insisted he was innocent, saying: "I didn't do anything wrong."

But Peugeot have stated that they will not appeal the decision.

It was one of the biggest accidents of my career Tommi Makinen

Gronholm appeared to have raced to victory after his nearest rival Tommi Makinen crashed out on the penultimate stage.

Makinen was pushing hard to catch fellow Finn Gronholm but rolled his Impreza five times on the last corner of the 13km stage 21 in the mountains near Cordoba.

Makinen and co-driver Kaj Lindstrom were unhurt.

"It was one of the biggest accidents of my career," said Makinen.

"We were trying hard to win this rally and were driving flat out in sixth gear on a very, very long straight when the back of car got away from us and we went off, rolling five times."

Our slow start on the first day cost us any chance of a podium place but we came away with some solid points Colin McRae

The Finnish pair had been locked in a head-to-head battle for two days, with four-time world champion Makinen leading by just half a second ahead of Sunday's final four stages.

He had whittled away Gronholm's first-day lead of 1 minute 40 seconds but had slipped 5.5 seconds behind again with two stages left.

Gronholm was 1.9 seconds quicker than Makinen on the famous 'El Conder' stage and then added a further 4.1 seconds to his lead on 'Giulio Cesare'.

But after Makinen's elimination, Gronholm also won stage 21 to take what seemed to be a virtually unassailable lead.

Rally of Argentina results:
1. Carlos Sainz, Spain, Ford Focus RS, 1:02.3 seconds behind
2. Petter Solberg, Norway, Subaru Impreza, 1:06.3 seconds behind.
3. Colin McRae, Britain, Ford Focus RS, 3:21.4 seconds behind.
4. Markko Martin, Estonia, Ford Focus RS, 3:54.7.
5. Toni Gardemeister, Finland, Skoda Octavia, 6:21.1.
6. Kenneth Eriksson, Sweden, Skoda Octavia, 7:18.9.
7. Juha Kankkinen, Finland, Hyundai Accent, 9:05.6 seconds behind.
8. Alister McRae, Britain, Mitsubishu, 9:51.9 seconds behind.
9. Gabriel Pozzo, Argentina, Skoda Octavia, 15:01.2 seconds behind.
10. Ramon Ferreyros, Peru, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo GrN 25:20.8 seconds behind

World Drivers' Championship standings:
1. M. Gronholm (Fin) 31pts
2. G. Panizzi (Fra) 20
3= R. Burns (Gbr)19
3= C. Sainz (Spa) 19
5. T. Makinen (Fin) 14
6. P. Solberg (Nor) 11
7= H. Rovanpera (Fin) 9
7= C. McRae (Gbr) 9
9. P. Bugalski (Fra) 7
10. S. Loeb (Fra) 6
11. A. McRae (Gbr) 2
M. Martin (Est) 2

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