Hayden Paddon and co-driver John Kennard hold sixth place overall after two days of World Rally Championship action on the island of Corsica, but are trying hard to improve their speed on the challenging twisty, tarmac roads.
The Kiwis are competing in the Tour de Corse for the second time and with their current focus to improve performance on the tarmac rallies, on which they have less experience, Paddon clearly hoped to be showing greater pace.
On Friday they started Corsica’s unique itinerary of a few, long stages – just 10 stages in total, virtually all 30km or longer – with the fifth quickest stage time to create a trio of Hyundai drivers in the top five. From there, things got tougher with high temperatures, overheating tyres and two punctures on Friday afternoon’s two repeated stages.
Saturday’s monster 53.72km opening test in cool conditions saw Paddon and Kennard the fastest crew at the first split, but saying he’d cooked the brakes and lost confidence on the final two-thirds of the stage, his resulting time was only eighth quickest.
During the mid-leg service on Saturday (CEST), Paddon said: “I’m not going to beat around the bush, obviously it hasn’t been the best of mornings, because the times are not so good. We’ve got a long regroup now so it’s time to go through the data to try and put our finger on why we’re losing so much time. Inside in the car we’re trying everything we’ve been talking about in previous days to try and improve, but it’s not going so well. Weather’s going to play a part this afternoon so we’ll make sure we’re prepared as we can be.”
While rain threatened, Paddon’s repeated run on the 53.72km test gave him the sixth quickest time, but still not what Paddon was looking to achieve.
Saturday evening Paddon said: “As we’re not in the battle up front, we decided to cross over tyres in the final stage. That changed the balance of the car but we have to try these things.
“Overall, it’s been a trying day today, not what we wanted. We’re just struggling for speed, and are not exactly sure why. We need to work out what’s going on to try and improve. Okay, we’re still in sixth place, but it’s not what we want. One more day to go, so we can try and make some improvements on these final two stages.”
Paddon’s Hyundai Motorsport team-mate Thierry Neuville is in a strong second place and secured a stage win on Saturday’s final test. Dani Sordo made it a Hyundai Motorsport 1-2 in SS8, ending a positive day for the Spanish crew who have now moved back up to seventh overall, 21.2 seconds behind Paddon.
The rally concludes on Sunday (CEST) with another monster 53km stage, plus the 10.42km 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.
ENDS/
2016 FIA World Rally Championship, Round 10, Tour de Corse
Overall Classification after Day Two
1. S. Ogier / J. Ingrassia (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) 3:27:10.0
2. T. Neuville / N. Gilsoul (Hyundai New Generation i20 WRC) +46.5
3. A. Mikkelsen / A. Jaeger (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) +1:08.0
4. J.M Latvala / M. Anttila (Volkswagen Polo R WRC) +1:41.3
5. C. Breen / S. Martin (Citroën DS3 WRC) +2:04.9
6. H. Paddon / J. Kennard (Hyundai New Generation i20 WRC) +2:42.7
7. D. Sordo / M. Martí (Hyundai New Generation i20 WRC) +3:03.9
8. E. Camilli / B. Veillas (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +4:18.2
9. M. Østberg / O. Floene (Ford Fiesta RS WRC) +5:10.5
10. E. Evans / C. Parry (Ford Fiesta R5) +5:47.0
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