New Zealanders Hayden Paddon and John Kennard hold a very close fifth position after the first day of Rally de España despite an anti-lag system issue on their New Generation i20 World Rally Car.
Starting Friday’s (European time) predominantly gravel stages 10th overall following Thursday evening’s rain-soaked super special stage in Barcelona, they quickly leaped up the leader-board to third overall with a second quickest time through the day’s opening 12.50km stage. Paddon and Kennard pushed on as best they could, but with the day’s schedule including only a tyre regroup, not a full midday service, they had to contend with the technical issues all day. There was action aplenty around them with the rally lead moving from Ott Tanak, to Hyundai’s Thierry Neuville, to Sébastien Ogier to Hyundai’s Dani Sordo by day’s end.
Paddon said: “A difficult day, unfortunately. Near the end of the first stage we struck a technical problem we’ve had to carry for the rest of the day. Basically it’s meant we’re down on power with no throttle response. We’ve tried to manage it the best we can, but with no service it means we’ve had the problem all day. To be in P5 is probably still lucky, but it’s very frustrating because it could have been very good. The car’s been feeling good, even though the conditions have been quite tough. Never mind, we’re still here with two days to go on the tarmac. We’ll have to try and use this determination to try and claw some time back. Disappointing, it’s not what we wanted and just need a bit of luck on our side.”
The Kiwis are just 1.2 seconds away from fourth-placed Neuville prior to tackling two days of tarmac stages on Saturday and Sunday.
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