HAYDEN PADDON IS TARGETING MORE PODIUMS THIS YEAR TO PROVE HIS RECORD BREAKING PERFORMANCE AT RALLY ITALIA SARDEGNA WAS NO FLUKE.
The Kiwi was the star of the championship’s sixth round, leading for most of the opening two days and taking his first ever WRC podium with second place, one year on from his Hyundai Motorsport debut.
And having tasted the podium champagne for the first time, Paddon is hoping for more impressive runs in the second half of the year.
“It’s been an amazing weekend – definitely the drive of my career so far,” Paddon told wrc.com. “The result is more than we were hoping for from the whole year! I guess the difficulty now is that my expectations are raised a lot more for the rest of the season – but we can probably try to be on the podium a couple more times.”
“For sure it’s not a one-off, but at the same time I’ve got to keep realistic, keep my feet on the ground and do things step by step.”
Up next are the gravel rallies in Poland and Finland, both high-speed events that should suit Paddon’s driving style. “Finland, Poland and Australia later in the year are rallies I enjoy a lot more than Sardinia, and we’ll have a lot more confidence going to those. We’re going to go to Poland with the same mentality and see where it gets us,” he said.
Congratulations on your fine result at Italy I am travelling around europe on a motorbike and watched your split times on the computer for those last two stages in my hotel room. Might get to Poland to see you there. Well done from Lindsay