Kiwi rally driver Hayden Paddon holds sixth place on the leader-board of Rally Turkey after the first full day of competition. Paddon and co-driver Seb Marshall in their Hyundai i20 World Rally Car are just 3.2 seconds off Ott Tanak in fifth place and 35.1 seconds from Hyundai team-mate Thierry Neuville in first.
Paddon and Marshall started the Turkish event on Thursday evening slightly handicapped by a malfunctioning handbrake, securing only the 17th equal time on the opening super special stage in the streets of host town Marmaris on the Mediterranean coast.
Friday’s six stages started well for the pair who ran 11th on the road, despite the dust and huge rocks on the stages – they were second fastest on the rally’s longest stage of 38.1km, one that WRC commentators are calling the toughest of the season. That stage time jumped them up the leader-board to fourth.
The incredibly rocky roads were a challenge to all 13 WRC competitors, and didn’t provide the slight advantage of clearer lines for those further down the running order that is normally expected. Despite that, Paddon and Marshall continued to hold top five and six slots in a close-fought battle on the leader-board all day, to stay in touch with the top three by day’s end.
Paddon said: “It has been a hard day’s work for pretty much everyone out there today. Some of the roughest conditions I have ever seen! We had a plan from the start, aiming to be sensible, look after the car and keep the driving nice and clean. We didn’t really get an advantage from our road position so we just stuck to our pace notes.
“The afternoon was even harder, and it is testament to the strength of the cars that they withstood the stages as much as they did. We had a broken damper on the final stage, which didn’t help matters but we’re P6 in an incredibly close fight. Considering the conditions, that’s not a bad start.”
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