New Zealand’s Hayden Paddon is fifth after two days of the Rally of Germany, with little hope of improving on that position.
Paddon is 3:33.9 behind ADAC Rallye Deutschland leader Sebastian Ogier of France. Only four seconds separates the drivers from second to fourth, but they are 33 seconds behind Ogier.
The Kiwi driver is a further three minutes back, hoping to see off Mads Ostberg in sixth spot during the final day of racing.
Paddon sat in eighth position at the start of the day, heading into the sixth stage, but worked his way up the leaderboard late on.
Frenchman Stephane Lefebvre and Ott Tanak of Estonia dropped out of contention with various issues on the road, while Paddon chased down and overtook Ostberg on the 12th stage and extended that advantage on 13 and 14.
Paddon is fourth in the championship standings with five rounds remaining after the Rally of Germany.
