Britain's Damon Hill cruised to his third straight Formula One victory of the season in the Argentine Grand Prix Sunday, beating Canadian teammate Jacques Villeneuve by more than 12 seconds.
In an action-packed day in which only 10 drivers finished the race, world champion Michael Schumacher of Germany was forced out on the 46th lap after his Ferrari suffered damage to the back wing. He claimed after the race that his car had been hit by an object flying off Hill's Renault.The victory for Hill, whose Williams-Renault led the field from start to finish, was the 16th of his Formula One career, matching that of Britain's Jackie Stewart. He finished the 72 laps in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 55.322 seconds.
Benetton's Jean Alesi of France finished third, 14.8 seconds behind Hill.
"It's been great day, a fantastic result, it can't get better than this with three wins out of three,"Hill said.
"This is great for the team. This shows the force we have this season. I am very, very happy."
Hill, who had been suffering from an upset stomach all week, said he had not eaten for two days. He also lost radio contact with the pits at the beginning of the race. Otherwise, he described his car as "perfect."
He said he was unaware that a part from his car had allegedly hit Schumacher's.
The race, held under sunny skies, was marred by a series of accidents after a clean start in which cars jockeyed for position. Drivers said the track proved more slippery than expected.
Brazil's Pedro Diniz had to dive out of his car as it burst into flames during the 29th lap.
Smoke began to billow from the back of his Ligier-Honda and the car suddenly caught fire and quickly was engulfed in flames.
Diniz steered onto the trackside grass and managed to jump from the car and run to safety. It was not immediately clear whether he suffered any injury.
Shortly before, a safety car entered the circuit after Italy's Luca Badoer spun off the track and overturned. The driver crawled from the Forti-Ford, seemingly unhurt.
In the 33rd lap, Brazil's Tarso Marques, in a Minardi-Ford, ran into the rear of Briton Martin Brundle's Jordan-Peugeot and spun off the track to a stop. Brundle drove into the pits and both drivers were out of the race.
Hill, who won the season's first two races, in Australia and Brazil, repeated his 1995 triumph in Buenos Aires.
As Hill climbed to the winner's podium, a partisan capacity crowd of 50,000, which had cheered for Schumacher, whistled in an attempt to drown out a band playing the British national anthem.
At Nairobi, Kenya, Tommi Makinen survived a flat tire and a flash flood to win Kenya's three-day Safari Rally, the world tour's roughest and fastest rally.
Makinen traded leads three times with Kenneth Eriksson, who struggled with mechanical problems, on the last leg of the 1,743-mile race.
The Finn rolled into the winner's circle 14 minutes, 16 seconds ahead of Eriksson, a Swede. In celebration, Makinen spun his Mitsubishi Lancer in tight circles and waved a native Finnish flag.
Makinen extended his lead over Eriksson in the world rally race. He has 40 points to 23 for Eriksson.
Eriksson was stopped for 10 minutes while a helicopter crew carried out repairs on the drive-shaft and brakes of his Subaru Impreza.
"I didn't give up hope, even on the last leg I tried to push it," he said. "All the time you have to think about looking after the car, so it's difficult to push 100 percent."
Kenyan Ian Duncan was third in his Toyota Celica despite three flat tires near the finish.
Reigning world rally champion Colin McRae finished fourth after a bad day Saturday. He hit a rock, hit a 12-year-old girl - breaking her ankle - and suffered two flat tires 6 miles apart.
After heavy rainfall overnight, rally organizers trimmed 93 miles of mud-swamped roads from the final leg of the race.
This year's route ran through central and northwestern Kenya. It was divided into three legs, each starting and ending in Nairobi.