Hayden Paddon and John Kennard were forced to retire on the first stage of Friday’s itinerary at Rallye Monte-Carlo, having started the day fifth overall, due to damage to the left rear wheel of their Hyundai i20 WRC car. The New Zealanders will restart on Saturday (European time) under Rally 2 regulations and resume learning this tricky event.
Paddon said: “The morning didn’t go at all how we planned. We just got caught out by a patch of ice that pitched the rear of the car into a tree, pulling off the rear-left wheel. There was no way we could continue so we had little choice but to retire. We knew it would be a rally of learning but we weren’t expecting our first full day to be over so soon. That’s the nature of this rally, I guess. We are able to come back tomorrow under Rally 2 where we’ll look to resume our learning curve – with the mighty 51km stage first thing. That will be our next big test.”
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