Petter Solberg paid tribute to the work of Banbury's Subaru World Rally Team as he celebrated his first World Rally Championship victory on the Network Q Rally of Great Britain.

Co-driven by Welshman Phil Mills, the Norwegian finished 24.4 seconds ahead of Ford Focus driver, Estonian Markko Martin with Spain's Carlos Sainz, in another Ford third, a further 71.3 seconds adrift.

Solberg's Subaru teammate, Tommi Makinen finished the rally in fourth.

Solberg, who finished second in the drivers' championship, said: "I can't believe it - it hasn't sunk in yet. I will tell you, it has been hard work getting here."

"I have so many people to thank - the team have been amazing and Tommi was on the phone between the stages giving me encouragement and lots of support.

"It was a good fight with Markko and I'm expecting a lot of competition from him next year."

Co-driver Brian Hardie, from Deddington, finished in 31st place - fourth in class N4 - in the four-day, 1,024-mile event.

The 40-year-old Oxon map-reader partnered Gloucestershire's Nik Elsmore in a Mitsubishi Lancer.

Elsmore and Hardie disappointingly dropped from 25th overall and third in class to 40th and fifth in class after going off on the opening stage of the final day at Resolfen -- at almost 34 miles, the event's longest.

Martin Rowe, 31, of Aston-le-Walls, near Banbury, dropped from 49th to last when his Ford Puma 1600 slid off into a bog on stage six, before retiring with a mechanical problem. Britain's best-placed driver was 1995 world champion Colin McRae (Ford) in fifth, after Richard Burns, in a Peugeot, slid out on the penultimate stage.