Kiwis Hayden Paddon and John Kennard have continued to focus on their own performance at Rally Poland to hold third place overall with one day to go.
Going into the seventh World Rally Championship event of the season, running 1-3 July, Paddon said he was taking a back to basics approach and simply enjoy the thrill of driving on Poland’s high speed roads.
The change in mind-set appears to be working for the driver originally from Geraldine and his Blenheim-based co-driver as they tackle the very fast, sandy roads which comprise the summery Polish rally.
The pair set a seventh-quickest time on the rally’s opening super special arena stage on Thursday night (CEST), then leapt up the leader-board into second by winning on Friday’s first full rally stage. Running fifth on the road – as dictated by their pre-event championship position – Paddon and Kennard spent all Friday dicing with Ott Tanak and Andreas Mikkelsen at the front of the field, securing two more stage wins along the way, but ultimately having to cede second to Mikkelsen. (Paddon has now won 18 WRC stages in his career to make him the most successful New Zealand rally driver to date.)
Following Friday’s eight stage itinerary, Paddon said: “It’s been a good day. It’s obviously pleasing to get to the end of a day at a rally as it’s felt like a long time since we’ve done that [referencing the two DNF results at the previous two rallies in Portugal and Sardinia].
“The fight’s very close. To win three stages today and to be within seven seconds [quote prior to Friday’s super special stage] of the lead, it’s all very tight. This morning was a good loop for us, everything felt comfortable and the times were coming easily. I struggled a bit more this afternoon as the conditions were quite rough and we didn’t really adapt the car setup well enough.
“Tomorrow the aim is to keep going at this pace; we’re not prepared to take massive risks. We need to let the times come to us so we just have to make some small adjustments tonight and be back on it tomorrow.”
Going into Saturday’s seven stages, Paddon and Kennard were 10.2 seconds behind rally leader Tanak and six seconds behind Mikkelsen in second, while also holding a 6.1 second margin over championship leader Sebastien Ogier in fourth.
The Kiwis had another consistent and strong day behind the wheel of their New Generation Hyundai i20 WRC car with a string of top five times to keep the pressure on Tanak and Mikkelsen throughout Saturday.
With only a tyre-fitting zone at lunchtime, not a regular service, Paddon said: “It’s not been a bad morning. We’re trying to enjoy the first pass as much as we can before it gets too rough. On the soft tyre even in these very hot conditions, it’s moving around a little bit. I haven’t been adapting to this well enough, but am really pleased with how the car’s feeling. We’ve improved it overnight. It’s still very close between us and Andreas on the podium. Ott is doing a good job a bit further in front, but we’ll just concentrate on our own rally.”
Paddon and Kennard finished Saturday still in third place with a relatively consistent 6.5 second margin to Mikkelsen in second and a 15.7 second gap back to their Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville in fourth.
Paddon said: “It’s been a good day. To be consistently up challenging the leaders has been good. The car’s been performing really well. Just a few things with the driving I’m trying to get on top of, but all in all to be in a strong third place and not far off second is a good place to go into the last day.
“This rally’s not over. We’re expecting some rain overnight, if the rain does eventuate, we know the roads here become very, very slippery if wet. So all of a sudden a five second gap is not so big. We’ll hope for a bit of rain overnight because then that can give us a better chance and we’ll keep pushing on and see what result comes at the end of the rally.”
Sunday’s final leg of Rally Poland sees competitors tackle two stages run twice, including the bonus point-earning power stage.
Paddon and Hayden Paddon RallySport Global (HPRG) Ltd appreciates the support of their exclusive partners, Hyundai New Zealand, Pak’nSave and Z Energy and associate sponsors Scott Sports and All About Signs Timaru.
