Burns wins for Peugeot, Gronholm excluded.

Peugeot 206 WRC driver Richard Burns has secured victory for the French manufacturer on the sixth round of the FIA WRC series, the Rally Argentina after his team-mate Marcus Gronholm was excluded.

Marcus Gronholm and navigator Timo Rautiainen started today's final leg in second overall, a mere half a second behind leader Tommi M?kinen. But the 2000 world champions, who'd led convincingly before differential problems cost them time yesterday, started to attack from the very first corner this morning.

They needed just one stage to move ahead of their countryman, and another fastest time on the next test put maximum pressure on their rival. Makinen then crashed out at the end of SS21 and handed a commanding lead to Gronholm, who cruised through the final stage to secure his third victory of the year, but he was later excluded for a servicing infraction.

Even so the result strengthens Peugeot's lead in the manufacturers' championship.

Speaking before the exclusion Gronholm said: "I'm delighted to get another win, and also after such a good fight with Tommi. It was a strange battle this morning - for sure, I attacked, and I took a lot of risks, and then he made a mistake so the last stage was quite easy for me."

"It's another fantastic result for me and for Peugeot and it's hard to believe that we've got another 16 points in the manufacturers' championship. So far this season has been going really well but this is the second rally in a row where the competition has been close, which shows we have to keep trying."

His team-mate Richard Burns had this to say, before he was awarded the win: "The tactic this morning was to push hard and try to stay in touch, and while that didn't go exactly according to plan we still ended up with second place once Tommi crashed. It's amazing that we've scored five one-two finishes in a row now but we're just concentrating on doing our job and we'll continue to do that. Acropolis is next and I've won there before."

The FIA World Rally Championship moves back to Europe for its next round, the Acropolis Rally in Greece on June 13-16. The notoriously rough roads near Itea will undoubtedly test both the speed and durability of the top cars - and the crews themselves, since high temperatures mean physical fitness is crucial.